Free Republic

Leading Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney insistently pledges that he will end public funding for NPR and for PBS (the latter partially funds NPR). Other congressional Republicans agree with him. For decades as a reporter, I have continually found vital information on public radio and television that at first was available nowhere else. A current example that may be of importance to many of you, particularly parents of schoolchildren: An NPR story ("No, the School Nurse Is Not in," Jan. 3) reveals that, "More than half of American public schools don't have a full-time nurse, and the situation is getting...

Newt has the right to fight back against his competitors, I have no problem with that. However when he starts by sounding like Obama and using the class warfare card on Romney's wealth, it is just plain stupid. Now his latest quip about taxing the blind, and scraping the bottom of the barrell is just more over the top whining. I really think Newt is probably the smartest and best informed candidate. However, his achilles heal has always been his ego, and the inability to handle rejection or negativity (a major part of politics) in a grown up fashion. It...

T o many, America’s industrial heartland may look like a place mired in the economic past—a place that, outcompeted by manufacturing countries around the world, has too little work to offer its residents. But things look very different to Karen Wright, the CEO of Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Wright’s biggest problem isn’t a lack of work; it’s a lack of skilled workers. “We have a very skilled workforce, but they are getting older,” says Wright, who employs 1,200 people at three Ohio factories. “I don’t know where we are going to find replacements.” That may sound odd, given...

I have posted several articles on the very fast moving agenda in our schools that will cause terrible harm to our children. The homosexual agenda could destroy the moral fabric of our country as they target children, since that is where our future lies. Have you checked your local school's curriculum and textbooks? California's news law and our own government's initiative is on the move to indoctrinate our children into the homosexual agenda. Recent ad concerning the Canadian mandate which promotes the homosexual agenda in the Canadian school system, which the US is headed towards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blkFl0-ZJdY Related: Rescue Your Child...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army 1st Lt. Ashley White died on the front lines in southern Afghanistan last weekend, the first casualty in what the Army says is a new and vital wartime attempt to gain the trust of Afghan women. White, like other female soldiers working with special operations teams, was brought in to do things that would be awkward or impossible for her male teammates. Frisking burqa-clad women, for example. Her death, in a bomb explosion in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar, underscores the risks of placing women with elite U.S. special operations teams working in remote villages.

Evan Grae Davis, Shadowlinefilms director has written and/or directed promotional and educational videos and video series along with producing and creating websites and various other communication tools for nearly 100 organizations during the past 18 years. The main focus of Shadow Line has been to denounce violence against women. Their new project is called It’s a Girl!. This documentary is a collection of interviews done in China and India, where boys are preferred over girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”. Girls who survive infancy...

Imagine if on the night Paul Revere made his famous ride, the colonists cursed him softly, rolled over and went back to sleep. Then imagine that the red coats were able to stop the Revolution even before it began and all those would be revolutionaries blamed Mr. Revere. That alternate reality came to mind today when I tuned into CBS's Face the Nation. David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief re-election strategist, appeared on the program and referred to the US credit rating downgrade as "essentially a tea party downgrade."

De-Emphasizing marriage and abolishing State Marriage would definitely have been seen as liberal, up until very recently. Certainly, removing state control over an area where it is not required is definitely liberal. That was the understanding when I began to back this long term goal back in 2004. (snip) ...the reason why we are fighting for marriage equality is because we have to work with the present governmental system for a while yet. Marriage equality is currently easier to achieve than getting government out of the business, but the latter should be our long term goal. As for de-emphasizing marriage...

California lawmakers on Tuesday sent the governor a bill that would make the state the first requiring public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum. The bill, passed on a party-line vote, adds lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as people with disabilities to the list of groups that schools must include in the lessons. It also would prohibit material that reflects adversely on gays. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco says SB48 is crucial because of the bullying that happens to gay students. Republicans called it a well-intentioned but ill-conceived...

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will give remarks at the Department’s first-ever Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth summit at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 7, at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C. The two-day summit, “Creating and Maintaining Safe and Supportive Environments for LGBT Youth,” will take place Monday-Tuesday, June 6-7. Duncan will highlight the administration’s commitment to ensuring equal access to education for LGBT students as it does for all students. He also will discuss the Department’s Office for Civil Rights recently released guidance on the protection against harassment in an education setting based on gender,...

Obama Administration Holds LGBT ‘Youth Summit’ – Gov’t ‘Has Finally Come Out of the Closet,’ Official Says Monday, June 06, 2011 By Penny Starr (CNSNews.com) – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the first “Federal LGBT Youth Summit” on Monday after being introduced by a homosexual on her staff, who said the secretary “gets us” and is “tireless” in her support of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender youth. “Your federal government has finally come out of the closet in support of LGBT youth,” said Pam Hyde, HHS administrator for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. “It’s great...

Steps to Protecting Our Children from the Homosexual Agenda on TV • Related • Filed Under • Filed Under: Current events • Homeschool The gay movement intends to capture the next generation. We need to take action to protect our children! While homosexuals are only 1-2% of the population, they account for as many as 40% of all child molestations in the U.S. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported: 50 percent of male AIDS victims reported having sex with an adult male by the age of 16. 20 percent of male AIDS victims had sex with an adult...

After weeks of speculation, Sir Elton John and David Furnish have finally revealed how their son Zachary was conceived. While the pair had previously remained silent on which of them was the biological father, Furnish has now confirmed that he and Elton 'both contributed' to the conception of Zachary, who was born to a surrogate mother on Christmas Day last year. In the case of a same sex couple using a surrogate to start a family, they are required to submit either one, or two (in the case of Elton and Furnish), semen specimens which are then used to fertilise...

As efforts to legalize same-sex “marriage” proceed in the United States and countries around the world, Pope Benedict issued strong remarks on Jan. 14, saying that gay “marriage” perverts the “essence and goal of the family.” Addressing officials from the city of Rome and the Italian region of Lazio, Pope Benedict said that legislation and policies that promote same-sex unions end up “penalizing” heterosexual couples, “who, not without effort, seek to maintain stable emotional ties which are juridically guaranteed and publicly recognized.” “To this end,” he stressed, “the various components of society must agree on the objectives of education, in...

Our liberal ruling class has been institutionalizing bizarre, child-warping mutations of the traditional family. It shows up in little ways — like the politically incorrect concept of children having a mother and a father being expunged from passport applications. "The words in the old form were 'mother' and 'father,'" said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now 'parent one' and 'parent two.'" A statement on the State Department website noted: "These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child's parents and in recognition of different types of families." After...

A growing number of Republicans are breaking with the party's traditional stance to publicly state their support for same-sex marriage, a shift strategists say stems as much from demographics as from the renewed focus on economics and the "tea party" movement. A solid majority of adults younger than 30 - about six in 10 - support the right of gay and lesbian couples to legally wed, according to a Washington Post poll in February. But even many older Americans and self-identified social conservatives have changed their view on an issue that just six years ago galvanized voters in support of...

In parts 1 and 2, I discussed a series of evidences regarding how President Barack Obama is leading the White House pack in distancing his administration from the Boy Scouts of America via delaying Eagle Scout certificate signings, denying the invitation to go to the BSA's 100th anniversary gala, downplaying his acceptance of BSA's honorary presidency, dodging official White House communications about the BSA, not defending the BSA against cultural attacks, and, hence, devaluing his all-around role as BSA's honorary president. U.S. presidents have been proudly accepting and fulfilling the post of honorary president of the BSA since President William...

Is “Ever After” Just Too Long? Marriage and Modernity We have become a culture that believes that staying together unto death is just too much to ask. Tuesday, June 8, 2010 The announcement that Al and Tipper Gore are separating after forty years of marriage has captured the attention of the American public to a rather surprising degree. After all, divorce is hardly uncommon these days, and the Gores are famously part of the Baby Boom generation — the generation of couples with the highest divorce rate in history. The Gores made their announcement in an email sent to friends...

Though mainline denominations already welcome LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) persons, the multifaith group Intersections says it's not enough. "[W]e must sing their welcoming as loudly as we sing the hymns," the group declares.... Intersections Director Robert Chase maintains the "'God vs. gays' dichotomy is false" and "reflective of only part of Christendom." "The religious right’s divisive paradigm is paralleled by more progressive stances that have resulted in inclusive institutional transformation," he stated. A Pew Research Center's survey also found wide support for homosexuality among lay people in mainline Protestant churches.

Tuesday's unequivocal statement by the Pentagon's top two officials that openly gay men and women shouldn't be barred from serving in the nation's military should be the beginning of the end of an outdated policy. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that repealing the Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" policy is "the right thing to do" because the policy forces service members to lie about themselves or abandon their careers. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said ending the prohibition is inevitable, because attitudes toward gays have changed among the public...

For research I'm doing into the facts about the effects of gay parents on children. I've heard so much about how there are absolutely no differences on kids when they've been brought up in a "Heather Has Two Mommies" kind of household, but I've seen very little, if any research. The URL I found above seems like a lot of puffery. I am not looking for opinions, but links and reports on any studies into this. If you have worked with this population, your insights would be welcomed.

Washington – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today responded to the “Manhattan Declaration” produced and released by 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders indicating that they will not cooperate with laws that conflict with their beliefs, including those recognizing same-sex couples. The document also references the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as a threat to religious liberty. Yet ENDA – which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity – broadly exempts religious organizations. The declaration also argues that religious groups that receive public funds...

SNIPPET: "The president has nominated Chai Feldblum, a lesbian activist, to be commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her appointment is awaiting Senate confirmation." SNIPPET: "Feldblum, a law professor at Georgetown University, has signed an online petition titled, "Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families and Relationships."" SNIPPET: ""Chai Feldblum is on record saying that the battle between our religious freedoms and homosexual so-called rights is a zero sum game," says Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality." SNIPPET: ""She says she can't think of a case where the religious rights -- in...

Folks, a pretty busy weekend for “gay rights” activists. Currently, the so-called “National Equality Rally” is under way in Washington, D.C.; yesterday, President Obama, fresh from his Nobel Peace Prize win, addressed a meeting of the Human Rights Campaign, promising, among other things, the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that forces active homosexual persons to keep their sexual preference a private matter while serving in the military. The ban has been a favorite of presidents and politicians who have never served in the military and are clueless as to its inner social workings, yet are bent to...

Below is audio and a partial transcript of Kevin Jennings', President Obama's safe school czar, thoughts on keeping the Boy Scouts out of the public school system. This is from a 2000 speaking engagement with his former organization the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Iowa. In the same speech, Mr. Jennings also advocated for mandating a gay friendly curriculum in the public schools from kindergarten onward.

...Domestic abuse is the most common cause of nonfatal injury to American women and more than half of all American women who are murdered each year are victims of domestic abuse.

Oh joy. Please God, help us relocate by then..... COLOGNE, Germany — The Federation of Gay Games announced this afternoon that Cleveland will be the site of the 2014 games. The city was chosen over Boston and Washington, D.C., after a year-long site-selection process, the organization said in a news release issued at 1 p.m. "Cleveland demonstrated to the Federation of Gay Games that they understood the mission of the Gay Games and our principles of ‘Participation, Inclusion, and Personal Best’," said Kurt Dahl, of Chicago, and Emy Ritt, of Paris, FGG Co-presidents.

In an official proclamation this afternoon, President Obama declared today Family Day 2009. What is significant is the way he defined "family." The president gave a nod to the gay community when he praised all families, "whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian." (Emphasis ours.) His shout-out to same-sex couples is sure to draw heat from some social conservatives. Interestingly, it has been met with some hostility from gay rights activists too. One commenter on gay blogger Pam Spaulding's website called today's statement "honeyed words, easy to say." "Mr. President,"...

"The Newlywed Game" is bringing on its first gay couple. It's a celebrity duo for the long-running game show, now on the GSN cable network. George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek," will appear with his partner, Brad Altman. They just celebrated their first anniversary after being married in Los Angeles.

One of the UK's oldest Christian denominations - the Quakers - looks set to extend marriage services to same-sex couples at their yearly meeting later. The society has already held religious blessings for same-sex couples who have had a civil partnership ceremony. But agreeing to perform gay marriages, which are currently not allowed under civil law, could bring the Quakers into conflict with the government.

A controversial member of President Barack Obama’s faith-based council said that part of the administration’s role in promoting responsible fatherhood should include moving beyond America’s “heteronormative view of fatherhood.” Harry Knox, appointed last month to the 25-member President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has drawn fire for inflammatory comments about the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI. Knox talked about fatherhood and other issues the council would work on in a May 11 PBS interview, which aired two days before a May 13 letter – signed by nearly two dozen prominent Catholics, including House Minority Leader John Boehner...

In their efforts to improve the situation of women around the globe, a handful in the international community believe there should be no honoring of motherhood in public policy since motherhood "traps" women in lowly domestic endeavors instead of using their talents in the workforce.

For those who were shocked by Obama "faith" advisor Harry Knox knocking the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic men's group, as an "army of oppression," he is not alone. Gay activists are now taking pride in getting Knights charity drives crushed at supermarkets. Metro Weekly, a D.C-based gay "news" magazine, honored a man for his "Storefront Stand" -- he harassed Knights of Columbus volunteers raising funds for the mentally disabled (usually with Tootsie Roll candies) outside a Safeway store in northern Virginia. Allison also succeeded in getting other Knights thrown off one Giant supermarket's property. To passers-by at Safeway, Brad...

NH SAME-SEX "MARRIAGE" BILL After digesting everything from last week's contentious public hearing, the committee voted 3-2 to "not recommend" this bill!

A majority of Roman Catholic adoption agencies have cut their ties with the Church rather than defy gay equality laws. Five agencies have declared themselves independent - and some have changed their names - to comply with laws that say they must allow homosexual couples to adopt children.The retreat ends decades in which the adoption charities have worked in the name of the Catholic Church with support from dioceses, clergy and congregations.The decision to end the formal connection with the Church follows a deadline set by the Government for charities to comply with the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations. These...

From The Times April 8, 2009 Tony Blair tells the Pope: you're wrong on homosexuality Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. Asked about the Pope’s stance,...

HOME SCHOOL MOMS QUESTIONAIRE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. DECLARATION OF NON-PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOL FORM FOR HOMESCHOOLERS-OUR RIGHTS 101 FY (SCHOOL YEAR - INDEFINITE) Can the school board guarantee my child’s safe return home from school each day. This includes the time that they are entrusted to your care during school hours. This includes but is not limited to safety in the rest rooms, in the hallways, on the stairways, in and under the bleachers, in the lunch room, in the class rooms, on the playgrounds, or on any school property. COMPLIANCECan the school board guarantee that a member of it’s...

After Ambassador Susan Rice's inability to make an "iron-clad commitment" for immediate ratification, Boxer will ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for U.S. support of the UNCRCWASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which opponents say could destroy American sovereignty by imposing international rulings on American law, could reach the Senate within 60 days. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) says she wants a 60-day timeframe for the State Department to complete its review so the Senate can move toward ratification of the UNCRC. During the Senate Confirmation hearing between Boxer and UN...

A leader in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has declared that the breakdown of traditional families, far from being a “crisis,” is actually a triumph for human rights. Speaking at a colloquium held last month at Colegio Mexico in Mexico City, UNFPA representative Arie Hoekman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent instead the triumph of “human rights” against “patriarchy.” "In the eyes of conservative forces, these changes mean that the family is in crisis," he said. "In crisis? More than a crisis, we are in the...

COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned. Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population. A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning.

The decline of the family has now reached critical and truly dangerous proportions. Family breakdown touches virtually every family and every American. It is not only the major source of social instability in the Western world today but also seriously threatens civic freedom and constitutional government. G. K. Chesterton once observed that the family serves as the principal check on government power, and he suggested that someday the family and the state would confront one another. That day has arrived. Chesterton was writing about divorce, and despite extensive public attention to almost every other threat to the family, divorce remains...

One of the top lawyers in the nation in the battle to protect traditional marriage, historically Christian lifestyle choices, parental rights and the key freedoms provided by the U.S. Constitution is warning that there eventually could be no lawyers left to take up those disputes. That's because of a recommendation before the State Bar of Arizona – the organization that licenses attorneys – to require all new lawyers to swear they won't let their personal religious perspective on homosexuality affect their representation of any client. Mathew Staver, chief of Liberty Counsel, warns that the proposal is just the "tip of...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29, 2008 - For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between family rejection of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and negative health outcomes in early adulthood. The findings will be published in the January issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a peer-reviewed article entitled "Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young Adults."

Leave it to the ACLU and judicial activism to challenge the will of the people. One of the most liberal states in America isn’t ready to have gays marry, and worry about the true threat that their children will be indoctrinated into accepting this lifestyle. The ACLU want to force them to accept it. The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process...

CALIFORNIA, October 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two of the world's largest computer tech companies, Apple and Google, have taken the unusual corporate action of opposing a California ballot measure, Proposition 8, which would insert the traditional definition of marriage in the state consistution. Proposition 8 would undo the May 15 California Supreme Court's judicial activist decision that invented a right to homosexual "marriage". The court decision ignored the 2000 vote by Californians approving Proposition 22 which maintained the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and expressly prohibited the state from recognizing same-sex marriages. Apple...

The question whether marriage as an institution should be abolished is now being debated all over Russia with a violence and depth of passion unknown since the turbulent early days of the Revolution. Last October a bill eliminating distinctions between registered and unregistered marriages and giving the unmarried consort the status and property rights of the legal wife was introduced in the Tzik, or Central Executive Committee. So much unforeseen opposition to the proposed law developed that the Tzik decided to postpone its final adoption until the next session, meanwhile initiating a broad popular discussion of the project. Since that...

QUEERLY BELOVED California bans 'brides,' 'grooms' License rejected for couple seeking traditional marriage Posted: September 08, 2008 9:05 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling © 2008 WorldNetDaily ROSEVILLE, Calif. – "Brides" and "grooms" are no longer allowed to marry in the State of California. That privilege is only extended to individuals who allow themselves to be called "Party A" and "Party B" on marriage licenses. Pastor Doug Bird of Abundant Life Fellowship in Roseville, Calif., was alarmed to find the state now rejects the traditional terms after he officiated his first marriage ceremony last week following the California Supreme Court decision...

LONDON: The escalation in Britain's growing surveillance state has created outrage over the way councils are using powers originally designed to combat terrorism and organised crime to spy on residents. British children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to serve as environmental volunteers and report petty offences such as littering by their neighbours. It also emerged last month that around 1,400 security guards, car park attendants and town hall staff have been given police-style powers including the right to issue on-the-spot fines for littering, cycling on the pavement and other offences, the Telegraph reported. Matthew Sinclair, of...

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

Colorado's new state law that was based on the apparent belief that free speech rights are not unalienable and they sometimes must be restricted is scaring residents who now fear expressing their opinions in public. WND has reported previously that the law, SB200, which was promoted as an "anti-discrimination" plan favoring alternative sexual lifestyles and gender perceptions, has made it a criminal offense to discriminate against someone based on those lifestyles or perceptions. The Christian publishing house Focus on the Family has called it a payback by the Democrat-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter to homosexual activists such as...