Free Republic

When it comes to names, everybody's got an opinion. But while figuring out what names people like is pretty simple -- the U.S. Social Security Administration keeps a list of the most popular baby names each year -- figuring out what people hate is trickier. It turns out that in the case of names, love and hate aren't mutually exclusive. A new informal survey of the most disliked names in America finds that popularity often breeds backlash, as a quick track to baby-name fame seems to also trigger hate for that name. Among the most-hated "trendy" names are Jayden, Brayden,...

There are few things more thrilling in life than having your first baby. But newbie baby namers are prone to making some mistakes that more experienced name choosers are able to avoid. If you're choosing a baby name for the first time, don't make one of these seven common mistakes: 1. Believing that the names that were popular -- and creative -- when you were a kid still have the same status. Name tastes have changed radically over the last decade or two. Goodbye, Jessica and Josh, hello Layla and Serenity, Landon and Tristan -- all top 100 names. 2....

A coworker came back from a trip to the coffee shop steaming mad. Here's Sarah's story: I'm meeting my husband at Starbucks today for a quick coffee and while in line I smile and coo at a 5-month-old boy in line ahead of me who was with his father and brother, a toddler. When I get to the concession stand I hear the baby start to make those familiar hunger sounds, that “eh eh eh” sound I know all too well because I have a 4-month-old and 2-year-old. By the time I am mixing my fifth sugar packet into the...

Australian ethicist working at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics claims that humanity has a “moral obligation” to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to select the most intelligent embryos for the good of society, with the obvious implication that the less intelligent “surplus” embryos should simply be destroyed. Professor Julian Savulescu of Melbourne made the statement while commenting on an economic modeling research paper by Oxford University ethicists Andres Sandberg and Nick Bostrom, who claim that a rise in humanity’s IQ would result in a reduction in poverty, welfare dependency, crowding of jails, school dropout rates, out-of-wedlock births, and...

The scandal and heartache of teen pregnancy has been exploited by producers of popular prime-time TV, who have made stories of 16-year-olds stumbling through accelerated adolescence into marketable drama. Likewise, news media have scrutinized the teen birth phenomenon for some time. The truly shocking and underreported story, however, is that of unmarried 20-something parents. While 21 percent of children born outside of marriage are to teen mothers, more than 60 percent of unwed births occur to women in their 20s. It is not the young girls studying for the SAT or fretting over their prom prospects that make up the...

Mark Krikorian at the brings up some excellent and under-reported points in the illegal alien issue. We’re all aware of the problem of millions of illegal aliens coming across our borders, many of whom are likely terrorists slipping into our country with ill-intent and who knows what else (maybe a suitcase nuke or a dirty bomb?). Yet our federal government refuses to do anything about it. We’re all also aware of the millions of illegal aliens who have been here for years, yet our federal government is unwilling to track them down, capture them and deport them. We are also...

"'Becoming a grandmother at 29 is my worst nightmare' says mum after discovering her 14-year-old daughter is pregnant" A woman who is set to become Britain's youngest grandmother at 29 said it was 'her worst nightmare' when she discovered her 14-year-old daughter was pregnant. Kelly John said she always hoped Tia would not repeat her mistake and become pregnant at 14. But after getting over the shock, the grandmother-to-be has vowed to do 'everything' to bring up the new baby.

Saving Black BabiesAbortion has cost 13 million African American lives.By Sheryl Blunt in Washington | posted 01/10/2003 Growing up in inner city Detroit, Janine Simpson and her girlfriends didn't think twice about having abortions. In her all-black neighborhood, teen abortions were the norm, she says, and the local abortion clinic was a fixture. "My friends and I, we all had abortions," Simpson says. "We didn't even think about it. To us it was just getting rid of a blob of tissue. We'd say, 'Oh, you pregnant? Okay, let's go take care of it.' " But after Simpson's own abortion her...

PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona lawmakers are holding a hearing on a bill that challenges automatic U.S. citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. The bill to be heard Monday by the Senate judiciary committee provides a definition of a citizen of Arizona as a person who was born or naturalized in the United States and lives legally in Arizona.

Two Republican senators are introducing a resolution that would end the constitutional right to citizenship that comes with being born on U.S. soil. Rand Paul (Ky.) and David Vitter (La.) are introducing a resolution this week that would amend the Constitution so that a person born in the United States could only become an American citizen if one or more of his or her parents is an legal citizen, legal immigrant, or member of the armed forces, according to a joint press release Thursday. Vitter said the legislation would help reduce illegal immigration. “For too long, our nation has seen...

An abortion doctor has been arrested and charged with the murder of a patient and seven live infants whose spines were severed with scissors at a West Philadelphia clinic that has been described as a house of horrors, officials said today. District Attorney Seth Williams said the doctor, Kermit P. Gosnell, was charged following a grand jury investigation. Gosnell, 69, lost his medical license last year after health officials determined his clinic posed "a clear danger to the public." Gosnell was arrested this morning, officials said. He has maintained his innocence. The seven infants were born alive in the 6th,...

Welfare benefits for the children of illegal immigrants cost America's largest county more than $600 million last year, according to a local official keeping tabs on the cost. Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich released new statistics this week showing social spending for those families in his county rose to $53 million in November, putting the county government on track to spend more than $600 million on related costs for the year -- up from $570 million in 2009.

Health Dept Ignored Abortionist Who Killed Woman, Babies With Scissors Washington, DC -- Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell of Pennsylvania was charged with 8 counts of murder yesterday related to the botched abortion death of a woman and his infanticides of seven babies purposefully born and killed with scissors. But the grand jury report accompanying the charges shows state officials did nothing when reports came in about problems at Gosnell's abortion center. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/20/health-dept-ignored-abortionist-who-killed-woman-babies-with-scissors/

California taxpayers pay record amount in benefits to children of illegal aliens Los Angeles Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has just released data from the Department of Public Social Services which shows that in November 2010, $53 million in welfare benefits ($22 million CalWORKs and $31 million in Food Stamps) were given issued to illegal aliens for their U.S.-born children in Los Angeles County. The record amount is an increase of almost $3 million from November 2009, and represents 22 percent of all CalWORKs and Food Stamp issuances in L.A. county. In 2009, CalWORKs and Food Stamp benefits given to illegal...

Abortion Practitioner Killed Seven Babies With Scissors Today, abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell was charged with murder in the death of a woman from a botched abortion, but the charges also include seven horrifying cases of infanticide. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/19/abortion-practitioner-killed-seven-babies-with-scissors/

Pennsylvania State Representative and State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) founder Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler County), state lawmakers and Constitutional scholars from across the nation convened in Washington D.C. today to unveil historic model legislation to correct the monumental misapplication of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This historic press conference was held on the same day as the swearing-in of the 112th Congress; encouraging that one of the first actions should be to uphold their oath and defend the Constitution to protect the states from the illegal alien invasion. “According to the 14th Amendment, the primary requirements for U.S....

Steve King Moves Forward on Bill to End Birthright CitizenshipPosted by Stephanie Condon January 6, 2011 10:13 AM Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, marking his first day as head of a House immigration panel, introduced a bill on Wednesday to end the practice of birthright citizenship. The bill would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth. It's generally thought that the 14th Amendment provides a constitutional guarantee of citizenship for anyone born in the United...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Photo: Stephen Masker) January 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a recent interview with California Lawyer, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated that abortion is not included in the U.S. Constitution. Scalia, who is opposed to the notion of an “evolving” or “living” Constitution, told interviewer Calvin Massey that by giving some of the “necessarily broad” provisions of the Constitution an “evolving meaning,” these provisions fail to do their job, which is to put in place limitations on what society can or cannot do. Even if “the current society has come to different views [than the...

"...Mr. Rupak is a pioneer in a controversial field at the crossroads of reproductive technology and international adoption. Prospective parents put off by the rigor of traditional adoptions are bypassing that system by producing babies of their own—often using an egg donor from one country, a sperm donor from another, and a surrogate who will deliver in a third country to make what some industry participants call "a world baby." "...Mr. Rupak is learning to navigate the uncharted nature of his field—the stateless babies, the ethical complexities. His expansion to Greece, a European Union member nation, is specifically intended to...

Doctors at a Berlin hospital have made a medical breakthrough after capturing live MRI images of the miracle of birth. The pictures, taken after a German mother agreed to give birth inside a magnetic-resonance imaging machine, could provide valuable new insights into the birthing process and allow future lives to be saved. Gynaecologist Ernst Beinder at Berlin's Charité Hospital said the birth proceeded normally and the machine filmed all the movements and processes that went on inside the womb.