Free Republic

We exploit information on compulsory schooling reforms in 11 European countries, implemented mostly in the 1960s and 70s, to identify the impact of education on religious adherence and religious practices. Using micro data from the European Social Survey, conducted in various years between 2002 and 2013, we find consistently large negative effects of schooling on self-reported religiosity, social religious acts (attending religious services), as well as solitary religious acts (the frequency of praying). We also use data from European Values Survey to apply the same empirical design to analyze the impact of schooling on superstitious beliefs. We find that more...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEjqRLjP7Io "You are not Mary's cause and you are certainly not her charity. You are just a vote - nothing less, nothing more. You are just a means to an end, so that she remains in power."

Nearly three-quarters of the public (72%) now thinks religion is losing influence in American life, up 5 percentage points from 2010 to the highest level in Pew Research polling over the past decade. And most people who say religion's influence is waning see this as a bad thing. Perhaps as a consequence, a growing share of the American public wants religion to play a role in U.S. politics. The share of Americans who say churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues is up 6 points since the 2010 midterm elections (from 43%...

Unfortunately, sometimes high school looks a lot like a real-life version of the movie "Mean Girls." Case in point, a group of girls at Grand Prairie High School in north Texas tricked 17-year-old Lillian Skinner into thinking she was nominated for the homecoming court. The truth is, she wasn't actually nominated, but the story doesn't end there. Her two friends Anahi Alvarez and Naomi Martinez, who were nominated, heard about the cruel prank and came up with a plan. They decided that if either of them won, the winner would give the crown to Lillian. "We promised each other, and...

Think Freely Media is sponsoring its first Great Communicators Tournament in 2014 to identify, from within the liberty movement or beyond, and promote individuals who can effectively and persuasively discuss and defend the free market and the founding principles. The 2014 Great Communicator will be named during the State Policy Network’s Annual Meeting in Denver, after competing in front of judges Guy Benson, Mary Katharine Ham, and Heather Higgins. Contestants will first submit a video of him or her describing a policy issue using moral arguments to support a free enterprise or limited government position. These videos should: •take the...

Remember Peggy Joseph, the woman who thought Obama was going to pay her mortgage, gas and etc. She's been mugged by reality. There's a real opportunity for conservatives to capture a significant portion of the black vote. Doing so is the end of the Democrat coalition.

Uninsured Americans have soured on the Affordable Care Act in the past three months – and that bodes ill for the law’s popularity and financial underpinnings. Less than a quarter—24%—of uninsured Americans think the health care law is a good idea, and half think it’s a bad idea, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Wednesday. That’s an 11-point dive in support from three months ago, when a September poll — before the troubled rollout of the HealthCare.gov marketplace –found that 35% of the uninsured thought it was a good idea, and 32% thought it was a bad...

The young Americans the Obama administration so desperately needs to help make the Affordable Care Act function are the ones most likely to believe the law is endangered, suggesting that sustained House Republican efforts to repeal and undermine the law are bearing some fruit. More than half of 18-to-29-year-olds who were surveyed in the most recent United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll say it is likely the law will be repealed in 2014, even though the chances of that actually occurring are remote. According to the poll, 18 percent of respondents in this age group said it was "very likely"...

Apparently lazy and dishonest people aspire to work for the government. Also stray hobos are likely to steal pies from your windowsill. College students who cheated on a simple task were more likely to want government jobs, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania found in a study of hundreds of students in Bangalore, India. Note the “simple task” part. We’re not just talking dishonest here, but lazy. Like go off to play golf after using a teleprompter to deliver a speech lazy.

A mutiny has erupted among photographers who cover President Obama over what they say is the White House’s increasing practice of excluding them from events involving the president and then releasing its own photos or video. On Thursday, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 37 news organizations submitted a letter to the press secretary, Jay Carney, protesting what photographers said amounted to the establishment of the White House’s own Soviet-style news service, which gets privileged access to Mr. Obama at the expense of journalists who cover the president. “As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s...

The latest update of Stimson’s policy mood series suggests that the American public in 2012 was more conservative than at any point since 1952. (Actually, since mood in each year is estimated with some error, it seems safer to say that the current level of conservatism roughly equals the previous highs recorded in 1980 and 1952.) While the slight increase in conservatism from 2011 to 2012 is too small to be significant, it continues a marked trend that began as soon as Barack Obama moved into the White House.

The dust has settled (mostly) from last week’s elections, so I thought it time to present a very different assessment of what happened in Virginia than the snapshot I’ve seen from others. For example, Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices, Women Vote Action Fund distributed a wholly self-serving and unconvincing memo titled “Unmarried Women Cast Deciding Votes in Virginia Election.” It’s unconvincing, of course, because Republicans always lose unmarried women, regardless of an election’s outcome. Unmarried women are more liberal than most voters and are not part of any winning Republican coalition. NBC’s Domenico Montanaro and The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart...

Criminals take note; You're taking a chance if you try to ply your trade in the Dodge County town of Rhine. Local law enforcement is praising townspeople for some de facto community policing, after tracking down and helping catch an armed robbery suspect. For 60-year-old Ken Lowery the commotion began around 2:30 Thursday afternoon as he stepped inside Aden's convenience store and encountered the store clerk in distress. "The lady screamed at me and said 'I've been robbed, he's got a gun, and I gave him all the money,'" Lowery recalled. Lowery says he saw the suspected gunman, identified as...

The family of a kidnapped Louisiana mother tracked down and killed the father of her child in the abandoned house where he was allegedly holding her prisoner, authorities said. Bethany Arceneaux, 29, of Duson, La., was abducted in the parking lot of a daycare where she was picking up her 2-year-old at approximately 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Department Captain Kip Judice told ABCNews.com. Witnesses saw the suspect, Scott Thomas, allegedly force Arceneaux into his white Buick LeSabre, before driving off, Lafayette Police Department spokesman Paul Mouton told ABCNews.com.

An upcoming episode of Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" has political commentators dueling about the social safety net. The Nov. 11 episode, the focus of reports by the New York Post and Fox News Channel, involves the titular character being fired from his job at the Krusty Krab fast food eatery so the owner, Mr. Krabs, can save "a whole nickel," The Hollywood Reporter reported Wednesday. SpongeBob's friend, Patrick, attempts to show him the ways of "glorious unemployment," but SpongeBob eventually decides the life is not for him. "Lest he sit around idly, mooching off the social services of Bikini Bottom, a...

Illinois lawmakers are headed back to Springfield for the second half of the fall veto session, which runs today through Thursday this week. I will be join our lobbyists and other marriage advocates at the Capitol to continue our work to defend the institution of marriage. There is a very good chance that Springfield lawmakers will be voting on SB 10, the bill to redefine marriage. This is an all-hands-on-deck emergency! We need your voice and prayers now more than ever. It can be stopped if we are willing to stand up and speak out to our elected officials. Take...

Women in Saudi Arabia aren't allowed to drive cars. This parodies No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley. Take a look and spread it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZMbTFNp4wI

With half the black legislators in the state House of Representatives still refusing to vote for the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, gay marriage advocates are going on the air with an endorsement from the most popular black politician in Chicago, or anywhere else – President Obama. Illinois Unites for Marriage Equality is running an ad on black radio stations featuring pro-gay marriage sound bites from both the president and First Lady Michelle Obama. Obama came out in favor of gay marriage over a year ago. The ad is intended to counter anti-gay marriage ads and robocalls from the...

To say that same-sex “marriage” is a hot topic is an understatement. It’s huge. News headlines have been filled with the latest state or country that has legalized homosexuality-based “marriage,” the politician who has just “evolved” on the issue, or emotional stories about homosexual couples. From the countless stories in the media one would expect that vast numbers of homosexuals feel they are being deprived of something they desperately need: the rights and benefits that the government accords to married heterosexual couples. Why then do we not see vast numbers of homosexuals taking advantage of each new law that their...

LAWBREAKERS, LAWMAKERS: In some parts of Chicago, violent street gangs and pols quietly trade money and favors for mutual gain. The thugs flourish, the elected officials thrive—and you lose. A special report.