Free Republic

Israeli tourists visiting a shrine in Bangkok were shocked when a child, dressed in an orange Buddhist monk's robe, approached them and began speaking in perfect Hebrew. The 12-year-old Israeli boy has been staying in a monastery in northern Thailand, and has no idea until when he will remain there. When asked whether he wanted to be taken back home, he answered: "I told everyone already, it's fine, I'm used to it." The story was revealed on Tuesday by Israel's Channel 2 TV, which aired the tourists' conversation with the child. According to an inquiry by the Foreign Ministry, the...

The Boy Scouts of America on Friday moved to partially lift its long-standing ban on gays, with a decision that would allow openly gay youth members but continue to bar gay adults in one of the largest youth serving organizations in America. If the resolution is approved in a nationwide vote in May, "no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," Deron Smith, the organization´s spokesman, told Reuters. The report found religious groups linked to the Scouts were concerned with homosexual adult leaders not with youth

"Our state values the important role that youth groups play in the empowerment of our next generation; this is demonstrated by rewarding organizations with tax exemptions supported financially by all Californians," Lara said. "SB 323 seeks to end the unfortunate discriminatory and outdated practices by certain youth groups."

Sam Grant nearly celebrated his eighth birthday party in jail. The North Carolina boy had been charged with two felony counts of discharging his BB gun. The parents of a then-seven-year-old North Carolina boy are beyond angry after their son was charged with two felony counts of possessing a BB gun. Just moments before the child was expected to answer to the allegations before a Catawba County judge — the charges were dropped. -- But their world got rocked when the received a letter from the Department of Juvenile Justice summoning the family to court. “They told us that they...

Controversy has surrounded the Boy Scouts of America this year, as same-sex activists have pressured the organization to abandon its long-held values and allow homosexual members. Now, they are trying to remove the Boy Scouts' tax-exempt status. Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to members of the California Legislature Friday to explain the significant legal and policy problems of a proposed bill designed to punish nonprofit youth organizations like the Boy Scouts of America. The bill would strip organizations like the Boy Scouts of their tax-exempt status if they won’t abandon their long-held values and allow themselves to be strong-armed...

Ted Cruz for President? The Daily Kos folks cannot believe the thought. “Dr. Zombie” was amazed: “Demonstrating they intend to NEVER learn from their stupidity, they are already advancing this loony bull---t that some loudmouthed numbskull like Cruz could be considered a possible frontrunner for POOL BOY.” The blog concluded with what sounds like a lynching reference: “We can only hope they run with this and allow this dimwit to run his mouth as much as possible....Give this man enough rope and a tree, please.” Perhaps they mean a self-lynching. Google words like that and you get "Give a man...

<p>Madonna has never been a stranger to controversy, and she once again dipped her toe into those waters at last night’s GLAAD Awards, where she was presenting an award to Anderson Cooper.</p> <p>Dressed in an oversized Boy Scout uniform, Madonna took the organization to task for its policy that bans gay people from joining. “I wanted to be a Boy Scout, but they wouldn’t let me join,” she said during a 10-minute speech. “I think that’s (messed) up. I know how to build a fire. I can pitch a tent … most importantly, I know how to scout for boys.”</p>

<p>Children at Park Elementary School went home with a letter today explaining there was a disruption in school. Seven year old Josh Welch, and his father, say the disruption lead to a two day suspension for the second grader in Brooklyn Park.</p>

Major corporations that have donated to the Boy Scouts of America in recent years are largely remaining quiet ahead of the highly anticipated vote Wednesday on the organization’s policy on homosexuals, but some have made it clear their money will go only to groups that don’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, the top donors to the Scouts, listed in descending order according to amount, were Intel, Emerson, Verizon, 3M, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Pfizer, Valero, UPS, U.S. Bank, Eli Lilly and Co., GE, Monsanto, Medtronic, PNC, Nationwide,...

(CNSNews.com) - One day after President Obama said "yes," he thinks the Boy Scouts of America should admit homosexuals -- to expose them to "opportunities and leadership" -- dozens of conservative groups are running a newspaper ad, urging the Boy Scouts to "show courage" and "stand for timeless values." The 41 conservative organizations, in a full-page ad in Monday's USA Today, said it would be a "grave mistake" for BSA to change their longstanding policy against having openly homosexual Scout leaders or Scouts. In a Sunday interview with "60 Minutes" Correspondent Scott Pelley, President Obama said the scouts should admit...

President Obama called Sunday for the Boy Scouts of America to open its ranks to those who are gay. Asked in a pre-Super Bowl interview if he thought the group should end its ban on gay scout leaders and members, Obama responded with a direct: “Yes.” “My attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life,” Obama said. Obama’s comments come as Boy Scouts leaders say they will discuss whether to change their long-standing ban during an upcoming meeting. Obama made equal rights for gays...

Send this URGENT alert to all your friends. The anti-family movement is pressuring the Boy Scouts to surrender. To give up their honor.  To accept unnatural behavior -- sin -- and abandon their morally sound membership policy which bars open homosexuals from holding leadership positions. According to a recent statement by Deron Smith, director of Boy Scouts public relations, “... the BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation. This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation..." The proposed policy shift would place the moral welfare of 2.7 million boys...

HYANNIS (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A 5-year-old boy faces possible suspension, after building a gun out of legos, during his after school program. Joseph Cardosa is part of the after school program at Hyannis West Elementary School, on Cape Cod. His parents received a letter a few days ago that said Joseph has received his first written warning for using toys inappropriately, and that upon a secon written warning, he will be suspended from the program for two weeks. Joseph's parents, Shelia Cruz and Octavio Cardosa, say the school is taking things too far. "It's not like he's designing...

Remember how the far left in America has said since the rise of the Tea Party that the right is awash in "violent rhetoric"? What about the proposition to kill the Boy Scouts like one would kill a rabid dog? That is what a columnist for The Atlantic has implied. James Hamblin, the magazine's health editor, proclaimed his desire to kill Boy Scouts based on his distaste for their recently re-affirmed policy of refusing to admit openly gay members. Hamblin feels justified in using violent, even hateful rhetoric to attack the Boy Scouts merely because he disagrees with them. Boy...

Why does the homosexual movement continue to target the Boy Scouts of America with relentless protest? To STAND with the Boy Scouts, sign your petition here Two national BSA board members are pressuring the organization to abandon its morally sound membership policy which bars open homosexuals from holding leadership positions.   Groups and advocates who promote “tolerance” have also collected over 300,000 online petitions” — aided by liberal media publicity — to force the Scouts to accept unnatural vice in their ranks. However, the Boy Scouts are standing strong by their Oath:  “On my honor I will do my best...

You would think that after decades of Title IX enforcement, sex discrimination in school sports would be a thing of the past. But this isn’t the case in Suffolk County, New York, where a skilled student-athlete is being denied the right to compete in sports based solely on sex. The child is 13-year-old Keeling Pilaro, who for the last two years has been a member of Southampton High School girls’ field hockey team. He tried out for it and was allowed to play because there are no boys’ field hockey teams anywhere in the county. So what’s the problem now?...

The world of medicine is scared and honestly so am I. A whole raft of treatments that used to work, for example, anti-biotics, are proving themselves less and less able to deal with bugs that have become resistant and new conditions that appear from time to time. And it's not just in the world of physical ailments that treatments have started to fail. In the world of psychology too, treatments and therapies that were once believed to offer solutions have not lived up to expectations. Now parents face a new and potentially graver problem as they attempt to bring up...

The boy raised his hand, eager to answer the question. “What would you know about it?” exclaimed the teacher dismissively. “You’re not our race.” This was not dialogue from a Hollywood movie. According to a woman named Melissa Coon, it was what a teacher at East High School in Kansas City told her 13-year-old son, Allen, when he attempted to answer a question during Black History Month. Coon identifies that teacher as Mrs. Karla Dorsey, who is black; Allen is white. As has already been reported, Allen was a victim of a vicious racial attack last week in which two...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A 2-year-old boy who was rushed to the hospital after being found floating in a pool has died. Bakersfield police officers were sent to a home at about 3 p.m. Monday in the 2300 block of Sherwood Avenue regarding a baby in the pool not breathing. **** The pool had no gate around it. There were alarms on the doors, but the doors were left open due to the nice weather, DeGeare said. It is unknown how long the baby was in the pool.

A family vacation to west Texas included a frightening encounter with a mountain lion for a Leander couple and their 6-year-old son. The 17 stitches on the right side of Rivers Hobbs' face may be out by next week, but the memory of what caused the injury will not soon fade away. “It sneaked up on me,” said Hobbs. The 6-year-old was attacked Sunday, by a mountain lion, at Big Bend National Park. He and his parents were on a walkway near the main lodge heading to their room when the mountain lion attacked. “No, not that bad,” said Hobbs,...

He was under strict orders not to leave the house after school. But 11-year-old Jared Flanders neatly knotted his tie, climbed on his bike and went to pay his last respects to fallen Worcester firefighter Jon Davies at a funeral home down the street yesterday. Jared didn’t know the hero jake who died after rushing into a blazing triple-decker last week. Yet, the boy’s kind-hearted salute lifted the spirits of firefighters attending Davies’ wake.

When teenagers reveal that they had sexual experiences before age 13, shouldn't every effort be made to find out something about their sex partners? That concern is missing from recent reports about the "risky behavior" of teens who call themselves homosexual, where these students report much higher pre-teen sexual experience than their heterosexual peers. -- What is curious is our culture's mixed messages about early child sex and who the "partner" of that child is. The party line for years to kids in middle school or in "gay" materials pushed on teens has been promotion of early sex while providing...

A 20-year-old woman is being held on a $50,000 bond after she was arrested Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a male under the age of 14. Shaydon D. Young, of Hampton, Va., is in custody at the Midland County jail on a first-degree felony of aggravated sexual assault against a child. Midland police began investigating Young after a complaint was filed on July 21. The child, whose age has not been released -- but is known to be under 14 because of the charge -- was brought to the Midland Rape Crisis and Children's Advocacy Center for a forensic interview...

Despite hysterical headlines of an “historic” storm: Irene is a Category 1 Hurricane By: Liz Berry Saturday August 27, 2011 7:44 am cross post from IfLizWereQueen The Truth of Irene’s Strength? –not nearly that of her related headlines for the past two days from the US media. Here is the latest report from the National Hurricane Center as of 6:03 AM Central Time and the hurricane still has not made landfall on the US shores. *Note: A Category 1 is the lowest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale before a storm is classified as a tropical storm. I guess they’ll have...

A 4-year-old boy who was fatally shot while fishing with his father in northeastern Indiana was struck in the head by an errant bullet, a sheriff and a family friend said. Wells County Sheriff Monte Fisher told The Associated Press on Sunday that Jacob Michuda was shot in the head late Friday night while he and his father were fishing from a pier at a pond outside Ossian, a rural community about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne. Trisha Ulmer told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a Sunday story that the boy's mother told her the boy was...

A 9-year-old boy was shot in the head early this morning in the backyard of his Roseland neighborhood home on the South Side after he and his father went outside to bring in the family dog chained there, police said. The boy -- identified by the family as Ivan Burns Jr. -- was in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where family members were gathered this morning.

DILWORTH, Minn. — A 5-year-old northwestern Minnesota boy, born with numerous congenital birth defects, has died on a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World in Florida. Daytyn Hart enjoyed four days at Disney World, swimming and visiting the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Cocoa Beach. He died Friday at a hospital in Orlando, Fla. His father, Desi Hart, says he and his wife, Angie, discussed the trip with Daytyn's doctors and everyone agreed he was healthy and able to make the trip.

Casey Heynes has captivated the world’s attention with the video of him standing up to a bully and laying the smackdown. As some news reports analyze the consequences of the fight, one news show in Australia went right to Casey to get his inspirational story. Casey provides play-by-play commentary for his bully confrontation and admits that he wasn’t really thinking. The interview reveals that Casey suffered from a “lifetime of torment and abuse” and was all alone since his friends had deserted him. Casey sadly spoke about how he could only remember a couple of days when nobody would tease...

Most social scientists would agree that world events do not happen in a vacuum. Political forces, whether they are accidental or deliberate, in succession or a single action, give rise to political and social movements. After the fall of the Shah of Iran, Islamic expansionists began looking for ways and means by which to accomplish their religious dreams. Empowered by “divine mandate” and fueled with lots of oil, they believed the world must be dominated by Islam and the Sharia. Yet, in order to claim victory, they had to overcome their greatest obstacle: the power of the United States. A...

One of the most memorable experiences that I ever had was with the Miraculous Medal! It changed my life. In the fall of 1948, the year after my ordination, I was in what we call the Tertianship. This is a third year of Novitiate before taking final vows.In October of that year, a Vincentian priest came to speak to us young Jesuit priests. He encouraged us to obtain faculties, as they are called, to enroll people in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. Among other things, he said, "Fathers, the Miraculous Medal works. Miracles have been performed by Our Lady...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- A gun fair organizer was acquitted of manslaughter and other charges Friday in the 2008 death of an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi at a machine gun expo in western Massachusetts. A Hampden Superior Court jury found former Pelham, Mass., Police Chief Edward Fleury not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of furnishing machine guns to minors in the death of Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn. The charges carry up to 50 years in prison. Fleury's firearms training company co-sponsored the annual Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at...

Any semblance of objectivity grew fairy wings and flew out the window on the January 3 broadcast of NBC’S “Today Show.” Host Meredith Vieira promoted a book by Cheryl Kilodavis, titled “My Princess Boy,” an illustrated children’s book that promotes the tolerance of cross-dressing boys. NBC’s “Today’s Family” segment featured Kilodavis and her son Dyson in an eight-minute story and interview. Dyson likes to wear girls’ clothes and do girl things. Mom likes to make money off her son’s proclivities. And “Today” wants to educate viewers about “tolerating” little boys who wear dresses. The a perfectly unbalanced segment full of...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Louisville Metro police said a 4-year-old boy abused by his mother's boyfriend died from his injuries Friday. Doctors said it was the worst case of child abuse they have ever seen. James Anthony "Tony" Hack was rushed to Kosair Children's Hospital on Wednesday afternoon with critical injuries. Louisville Metro police said his mother's boyfriend, Johnny Juliot, was responsible. The coroner said Hack died of blunt force head injuries. Police said Juliot will be charged with murder once the child's autopsy results return, likely Sunday or Monday. He is also charged with criminal abuse and tampering with physical...

Wyoming Seminary in Forty Fort, Pa., is a traditional field hockey powerhouse, so it's no surprise that it's back in contention for a state title, with a berth in the state championship game on the line Wednesday afternoon in Seminary's faceoff with Crestwood (Pa.) High (the semifinal against Crestwood was originally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon but was postponed by bad weather). What is surprising is how Seminary is advancing through the playoffs, on the back of a male player who is singlehandedly dominating all Seminary's opponents.That player is Cornelius Tietze, a junior and German native who joined the Seminary field...

School officials in Denair, CA have responded to the controversy surrounding a boy forced to remove an American flag from his bike on school grounds due to “racial tensions.” The school’s superintendent is now saying that the boy was told to remove the flag out of concerns for his safety, and that the school will allow him to resume his flag flying From KTXL in Sacramento: Ed Parraz, the Superintendent of the Denair School District told us a school supervisor asked Cody to take down the flag. The supervisor will not be fired or face repercussions. Parraz says the supervisor...

Rejecting the top names of the past century, more and more parents are choosing gender-neutral boys' names. SNIP When sportswriter Peter Richmond, author of Badasses, was expecting his first son 25 years ago, he didn’t want to name him Tom, after his father, or Burgess, after his grandfather, and he certainly didn’t want to name the poor kid after himself. Instead, Richmond and his wife wanted to give their son a name that was unmistakably male yet broke rank with all the masculine names that came before it. Robert, William, and John have dominated boy-baby naming since statisticians began keeping...

An Alameda County Superior Court election remained undecided Wednesday, with Victoria Kolakowski - who would become the nation's first transgender judge - holding a slight lead over John Creighton. Kolakowski, an administrative law judge for the state Public Utilities Commission, led Creighton, a deputy district attorney, by 50.22 to 48.77 percent, or 3,300 votes out of 230,000 total votes cast, the county registrar's office reported.

Allison Levine of Seattle photographs a roadside sign, depicting a little boy urinating on a mock campaign sign promoting U.S. Senatorial Republican candidate Dino Rossi, alongside State Route 530 in rural Washington State on October 2, 2010.

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. -- A 9-year-old boy was rescued on Saturday morning after climbing into a claw-crane vending machine at a Wal-Mart in Sun Prairie. Firefighters said that somehow the boy crawled through the 1-foot-by-1-foot opening on the front of the machine and was sitting with the stuffed animals inside. The lock was cut and the boy was removed a few minutes after help arrived. Officials said that boy wasn't injured and suffered only a small scratch on his nose. After the entire ordeal, the boy went home with two stuffed animals from the machine. The child's mother said that...

A 15-year-old boy has been busted in the robbing and beating of a Mexican immigrant on Staten Island, the latest in a string of hate crimes... The 18-year-old victim was beaten and robbed... The suspect a Liberian immigrant who is now a U.S. citizen...

Boy Survives Falling Off Balcony After Bouncing Off Palm Trees A four-year-old boy had a lucky escape after falling from a 17th floor hotel balcony only to bounce off palm trees and land with minor injuries. By Paul Thompson 06 Jun 2010 Rescuers found Joey Williams still alive after he bounced off a cluster of palm trees and landed on a dirt surface near the hotel's swimming pool. Apart from surviving the 80ft fall he somehow managed to land between two pipes jutting up from the ground. Less than four hours after the fall at his hotel in Miami, Florida,...

June tends to be the busiest month for high-school students … and Supreme Court justices. That’s when students take their finals, and the justices issue their final rulings on the year’s most important cases. Ten years ago this month, the Court issued its decision on Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. Media coverage zeroed in on the fact that Dale, who wanted to be a Scoutmaster, was gay. But the point of the case was the Scouts’ successful defense of their organization’s right to free expression under the First Amendment. “We are not, as we must not be, guided by...

Baby Boy Survives For Nearly Two Days After Abortion A baby boy abandoned by doctors to die after a botched abortion was found alive nearly two days later. By Simon Caldwell 28 Apr 2010 The 22-week infant later died in intensive care at a hospital in the mother's home town of Rossano in southern Italy. The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after prenatal scans suggested that her baby was disabled. However the infant survived the procedure, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabria hospital, and was left by doctors to die. He was...

The 22-week infant later died in intensive care at a hospital in the mother's home town of Rossano in southern Italy. The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after prenatal scans suggested that her baby was disabled. However the infant survived the procedure, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabria hospital, and was left by doctors to die. He was discovered alive the following day – some 20 hours after the operation – by Father Antonio Martello, the hospital chaplain, who had gone to pray beside his body. He found that the baby, wrapped...

(CBS) In a Portland, Ore., courtroom, the witness identified as "Jack Doe No. 4" testifies uneasily about being an 11-year-old Boy Scout alone with his troop leader in 1983. "He grabbed my hand, and he slid it up his leg into his shorts," the witness said. The troop leader, Timur Dykes, had already admitted to a Scout official that he had molested 17 boys. Still parents were not notified and Dykes continued to work with the Scouts. In a deposition he confessed to abusing Jack Doe No. 4. Dykes was asked what he did that could be considered molestation. "I...

A boy of five was left stranded in a tree at school because of a bizarre health and safety policy - which banned teachers from helping him down. The mischievous pupil climbed the 20ft tree at the end of morning break and refused to come down. But instead of helping him, staff followed guidelines and retreated inside the school building to ‘observe from a distance’ so the child would not get ‘distracted and fall’.

JERUSALEM – The chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip has some political advice for President Obama: Get your house in order before mediating talks between Israel and the Palestinians. "He is unable to do anything in the region (Middle East) before he restores his dignity and the trust of his own people," Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas chief in Gaza, told WND in an interview yesterday. Zahar noticed Obama's slipping domestic poll numbers and also claimed the people of the Middle East have lost confidence in the man who once inspired hope in the likes of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority....

<p>An 8-year-old boy was found dead and his socialite mother near death at a luxury Midtown Manhattan hotel on Friday morning in a possible murder-attempted suicide.</p> <p>The incident was uncovered late in the morning at the Peninsula Hotel.</p> <p>The NYPD is investigating it as a murder-suicide attempt. Police said the mother, a Belgian socialite named Gigi Jordan, 49, made incriminating statements to detectives.</p>

A boy of 11 who has already been arrested more than 50 times has become one of his town's ten most prolific burglars. The one-boy crimewave was given an electronic tag and confined to his children's home in a bid to control him - but when he broke his curfew nine days running, magistrates simply gave up and removed the tag. Staff at the children's home have repeatedly proved unable to stop him coming and going as he pleases. Now police in Croydon, South London, are simply waiting for the youngster to turn 12 in February, when it will finally...

The LAPD plans to launch its own Explorer program for young people this month, removing the Boy Scouts of America from management, officials said Tuesday. The Police Commission voted two months ago to end its relationship with the Scouts because of the organization's policies that discriminate against gays. The program had been operated by the Learning for Life Foundation, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts. The move to create the Los Angeles Police Department's own teen program should be launched by Jan. 1, Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger told the Police Commission. "We have received inquiries from dozens of agencies on...