Free Republic

There are times when children are the most sensitive creatures to spiritual thinking. I'm sure we all have a tale or two about ways in which children express the sacred. I had one such story happen to me in the wee hours of the morning.

Third through fifth graders at an elementary school in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District were assigned by at least one teacher this week to write letters to Gov. Rick Snyder saying how unhappy they were with his budget cuts, the school district confirmed Thursday. The students were told the best letters would be forwarded to the governor. One parent said the teachers prepped the students with what the budget cuts entailed because some weren’t aware. Students also were asked to speak in front of their classmates about why they didn’t like the budget cuts. Walled Lake parent Ernie Hughes...

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are entering negotiations over — or seeking ratification of — five treaties that could radically limit our national sovereignty and the reach of our democratic institutions. Particularly scary is that the treaties, once signed and ratified, have the same status as constitutional law and cannot be altered or eclipsed by Congress or state legislatures. And their provisions must be enforced by U.S. courts. Those who wish to preserve our sovereignty and democratic control over our future must rally to block these treaties, either by pressing Obama and

A North Miami Beach couple severely beat their 9-year-old son, who was found so starved that he weighed just 35 pounds, police said. Marsee Strong, 34, and Edward Bailey, 40, were arrested Saturday night on charges of aggravated child abuse. On Monday afternoon, they were still jailed and had yet to post $65,000 bail. According to North Miami Beach police, neighbors found the naked boy wandering the streets. Paramedics rushed the boy to the hospital, where he begged for food and told employees he had not eaten in three days. His body showed “permanent marks of abuse all over,” according...

Now we know that computers don't help children learn and that drugs don't help them concentrate, because the establishment mandarins who sold us the computers and drugs have conceded failure. In the January 29 New York Times, [1] a prominent professor of child development shows that attention-deficit-disorder drugs only harm the three million children who take them. One out of 10 American children have been diagnosed with so-called Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and most of them have been medicated. [2] Some months ago, the Times reported that test scores lagged in school districts that invested massively in digital education. [3] It...

I am going to try and tell you what happened to us on January 10, 2012, in the conference room in the Nephrology department at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We arrived for our regular Nephrology visit with Amelia’s doctor who has seen her for the last three years. She examines Amelia and sends us for labs. I ask about the transplant and she says we have about six months to a year until she needs one. She tells us she reserved the conference room and when we get back from labs, we can meet with the transplant team and he...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Scott Allan Herrick, 40, of Twin Lakes, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 95 years in prison, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today. Herrick surreptitiously videotaped boys as they were dressing in the boys’ locker room in the YMCA in Muskegon and kept a massive collection of 100,000 images of child pornography with him at the Gerber Boy Scout Camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan. He was convicted at trial of three counts of attempting to produce child pornography. On the first day of trial, Herrick pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography and one count of...

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland health advocates are lauding Gov. Martin O'Malley’s proposal to increase the state’s cigar tax, but critics say such an increase would create another financial burden for consumers and business owners. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, proposed a state budget Wednesday that would raise the 15-percent excise tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and other noncigarette tobacco items — a group collectively known as other tobacco products (OTP) — to 70 percent. The OTP tax has gone unchanged since 1999 while the cigarette tax has gone from 36 cents to $2 a pack during that period. Health advocates argue raising...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A class reading assignment infuriates the parents of a 14-year-old Valley Traditional High School student. They said their daughter's questions about the book left them speechless. The book is called "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." "She was masturbating and (describing) how to masturbate and how she did it and also giving a boy a (expletive) and going into great detail of how to perform it," said Vincent. Vincent took the book to her daughter's step-father, who became speechless. "Her being the age that she's in right now, you just freeze up. You don't know...

First Lady Michelle Obama seemed to delight middle schoolers in Virginia when she attended a special screening of her appearance on a Nickelodeon show, but the audience showed some displeasure, booing when she told them about the healthy food initiative that changes their school lunch menu. "Booo," cried the students who heard Mrs. Obama report that "my husband and the Congress passed a legislation to make sure we could put more nutritious foods into the schools. So you should be seeing more vegetables, more fruit, more healthy foods," she explained, according to the event transcript. The disc jockey helping with...

A German Catholic priest has admitted 280 counts of sexual abuse involving three boys over almost a decade, the BBC reported. About 2,800 pornographic images -- including several of his victims -- were found on the priest's computer. Named only as Andreas L, the priest, 46, told a court in Braunschweig he did not think he was doing harm.

IN LOVING MEMORY… On January 5, 2012 Jessie earned her angel wings after her ten month fight with brain cancer. Her courageous legacy will go on forever as the amazing team of compassionate people known at TeamNEGU continue to spread hope, joy and love to kids

A series of stark anti-obesity ads featuring miserable, overweight kids has sparked controversy in Georgia. The ads feature children talking about their weight issues in between harrowing messages such as, “Some diseases aren’t just for adults anymore,” and “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.” Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which co-founded the Strong4Life ad campaign, intended for the ads to be grim, hoping the clips would help parents recognize the severity of the obesity epidemic in Georgia, where it is the second highest in the nation.

28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison CampsDecember 30, 2011 It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being "educated" in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps. Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, "education officials" and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction. Instead of learning how to think, our children...

Children who have a poor emotional relationship with their mother are more than twice as likely to become obese, research claims. A study found toddlers who struggle with their mothers are at higher risk of being grossly overweight by the time they are 15. Those who had the worst emotional relationship were almost two-and-half times more likely to be obese at 15 than those with a strong bond. Meanwhile, only 13 per cent who had close bonds in their formative years became obese. U.S. researchers studied nearly 1,000 toddlers and their mothers at play then rated how strong the bond...

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The latest battleground in Israel’s struggle over religious extremism covers little more than a square mile of this Jewish city situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and it has the unexpected public face of a blond, bespectacled second-grade girl. She is Naama Margolese, 8, the daughter of American immigrants who are observant modern Orthodox Jews. An Israeli weekend television program told the story of how Naama had become terrified of walking to her elementary school here after ultra-Orthodox men spit on her, insulted her and called her a prostitute because her modest dress did not adhere...

Riley on Marketing

Kevin Christopher Fitzgerald's life ended Saturday night on the cold asphalt of Highway 101 in Santa Rosa when the 57-year-old homeless man walked into the path of a southbound pickup truck. The driver, traveling at 65 mph, swerved and tried to brake, but had no chance to miss Fitzgerald, the CHP said. The man had lived on the streets and been to local hospitals so often in the last 25 years that paramedics immediately recognized him. Fitzgerald, the fifth homeless pedestrian killed by a vehicle this year in Santa Rosa, carried a secret that stunned most people who'd known the...

BEIJING — A rich Chinese couple who had eight babies with the help of two surrogate mothers has been forced to move out of their villa following a public uproar and could face a large fine for breaching strict family planning laws mandating only one child. The couple in the booming southern metropolis of Guangzhou had the children last year, according to state media, but the story only came to light after a picture of the children — four boys and four girls — was used by a photography studio in an advertisement. The story was first featured in the...

HE WAS the young Scot who sailed to America to seek his fortune and ended up becoming the first department store Santa. Now the memory of James Edgar is being revived in an effort to boost the fortunes of his adoptive home of Brockton, Massachusetts. Born in Edinburgh in 1843, Edgar escaped the poverty of his childhood by moving to Brockton in 1878, where he set up a department store. Known for his progressive ideas, the entrepreneur was the first in the city to introduce electric lights and cash registers. Edgar was also known for his philanthropy, paying for local...

Two grandparents were kicked out of the University Park Mall Tuesday after they took a picture of their visiting grandson in the Food Court. "We were going to take our grandson, he's five and visiting from California, to see Santa and we were just sitting around the table having something to drink, talking about what we were planning and that's when my husband took the picture," said Grandmother Debbie Cassella. Cassella said immediately a mall employee instructed them to stop taking pictures or they would be thrown out of the mall. "I believe she said you can't take pictures at...

Police have arrested a San Jose, California woman after they say she approached children at elementary schools and used a ruse to steal their jewelry. A San Jose police spokesman says Sandra Lizbeth Contreras-Velazquez is being held on suspicion of grand theft for allegedly stealing gold necklaces from six children at six different schools in October and November. Spokesman Jose Garcia says the 28-year-old Contreras-Velazquez would approach the girls—who range in age from six- to eight-years-old—and pretend to be a family friend. After gaining their trust, Garcia says she would either ask the girl to take off her necklace to...

WESTFORD (CBS) – Westford school officials are getting tough on classroom holiday parties. They’re banning sugary snacks and sweetened beverages from the celebrations this year. Students are being told to leave the Christmas cookies, cakes, candy bars, and soda at home and to bring fruits, unsweetened juices, popcorn and raisins instead. Superintendent Everett Olsen says the ban on holiday sweets has nothing to do with being politically correct, rather, his motive is simply promoting a healthy lifestyle. “We aren’t trying to take the Christmas out of Christmas. We’re not trying to take the enjoyment out of children’s lives. We’re just...

NOTE The following text is a quote: http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/alleged-terrorist-indicted-in-new-york-for-the-murder-of-five-american-soldiers Alleged Terrorist Indicted in New York for the Murder of Five American Soldiers U.S. Attorney’s Office December 09, 2011 Eastern District of New York NEW YORK—Today, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., returned an indictment charging Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, 38, aka “Faruk Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa,” “Sayfildin Tahir Sharif” and “Tahir Sharif Sayfildin,” with aiding in the murder of five American soldiers in a suicide-bomb attack in Iraq in April 2009. Specifically, he is charged with the murders of Staff Sergeant Gary L. Woods, 24, of Lebanon Junction, Ky.; Sergeant First...

(CNSNews.com) – Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) says obesity threatens America’s “national security” because many people who join the armed forces cannot pass the required physical tests because they are overweight. Frist also cited a 2010 study on the problem entitled “Too Fat To Fight." “Childhood obesity is something much larger than something that just hurts and pulls back and restrains our economic strength. It threatens our security, our national security as a nation,” Frist said on Tuesday at the "Building for a Healthier Future" summit held in Washington, D.C. “Between 1995 and 2008, over 140,000 potential military...

America’s children are experiencing a “crisis of inactivity,” first lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday. “We may well be raising the most sedentary generation of kids in the history of this country,” Mrs. Obama said at an event in Washington to promote more healthful lifestyles for youth. “Kids today reportedly spend an average of seven and a half hours a day watching TV, playing with cellphones, computer games, video games.” The first lady has made it her cause to combat childhood obesity by promoting more healthful diets and encouraging groceries with fresh produce to move into underserved communities. But she said...

The year 1963 was very significant for America in many ways. It was the year that the Negro American, the term used back then, revolted openly but in non-violent fashion against a discriminatory system found especially in the south; it was the year that John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, was assassinated; and it was the year that the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, confirmed America’s continued economic and military support of South Viet Nam. It was also the year, however, that a less remembered court decision took place that had far reaching effects on American cultural...

This probably won’t shock most people because we live in an age where the envelope has been pushed so far it’s disappeared over the horizon.  According to the Daily Mail, pink and leopard-print thong panties with no crotches sized to fit a seven-year-old were being sold at Kids N Teen in Greeley, Colorado.  The panties were yanked after a mortified mother complained. As one writer put it: “It’s a new kind of memory: A daughter’s first pair of crotchless panties.” It’s also a sign of the times when a retailer decides there’s nothing wrong with selling sleazy leopard-print thong panties...

NEWTOWN, Conn --(Ammoland.com)- For children and youth 14 years of age and under,unintentional injuries are the leading cause of fatality, but firearms account for the lowest cause of injury among youth. “Tragically, 18% more children are killed by suffocation from bedding, plastic bags or small objects than guns.” said Ammoland Editor, Fredy Riehl

I’ve always been fascinated by name trends. It’s interesting to see how certain names ebb and flow in popularity. The name game is tough to win. If you hop on a trend, it could be cool for the first few years but, chances are, that name is going to feel dated when your child is reaching adulthood. That’s why I’ve always passed over fads for classic names. However, when naming my son a classic name I inadvertently hopped aboard a Hollywood trend. A twofer! Rare! If you’re looking ahead to 2012 wondering what names are going to be all the...

These images were taken by an anonymous individual on the website, www.ar15.com. They were taken during a rally in Wisconsin on November 17, 2011. The poster writes: I don’t have time to extract all the cell pics and video at the moment but I’ll drop this here to get some blood boiling. I was able to get in by the North Ave Occupy situation last night –– sitting amongst these idiots is quite an eye opener to listen to the stupidity that comes out of their mouths. And the stupid things they do out in the open. I was able...

The parents of a six-year-old American boy charged with sexual assault after being caught "playing doctor" are suing the prosecutors. Their lawsuit, filed last week, accuses officials in Grant County, Wisconsin, of violating their own and their son's civil rights, the Chicago Tribune reports. They are seeking $11.6 million in damages. The boy — who reportedly has a developmental disability — was charged with first-degree sexual assault last year. He had been discovered playing doctor with a five-year-old girl and her brother by the girl's mother. The lawsuit alleges the investigation was biased because the girl's father is a well-known...

A 32-year-old Webster man who allegedly advertised as a babysitter on Craigslist has been charged with sexually assaulting one of his charges. Steven P. Knox is free on $30,000 bond after being arrested Thursday on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14. According to court records, a 6-year-old girl told investigators that Knox, whom she knew as her babysitter, put his finger in her private area four times. The girl said Knox had put "ice" on his finger and that the penetration had burned. The assault allegedly took place at Knox's home on...

..... Heath and Deborah Campbell, the New Jersey parents of three children with Nazi-inspired names, lost custody of their fourth child 17 hours after he was born, the Express-Times of Lehigh Valley, Pa., reported. Hons Campbell was taken into custody by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services late Thursday night after the doctor who delivered the baby called the agency, the paper reported. “There’s no legal binding court order. It’s basically a kidnapping, but they use different terms,” Heath Campbell told the Express-Times. The Campbell family stepped into the spotlight in December 2008 when a ShopRite grovery...

A public school in Toronto has put a ban on most balls their kiddos toss around during recess because school administrators have deemed such projectiles dangerous. Well hello, wittle wussies. Hey, I’ve got an idea: Maybe we could get the overzealous Canadian ball-banner to take Holder’s job at the DOJ. Think about it. Given this Canuck’s proclivity toward protection I bet he’d make certain that thousands of AK-47s would not be purposefully given to Mexican drug cartels (which they could later use to kill our border agents). What’s that, you say? Dudley Do-Right can’t serve in the DOJ because he’s...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Nationally sold baby dolls are causing a controversy because some say the toys utter a bad word. The "You & Me Interactive Triplets," which are being sold at Toys R Us stores in Orlando, are causing the uproar because one of the dolls can be heard saying what appears to be the phrase, "Hey, crazy b****." "Oh, absolutely. She's calling them a crazy b****," Kathy Wetter said. The dolls are recommended for children ages 2 and older, and there is no warning of explicit language on the packaging. Toys R Us said it has received a number...

Who needs leafy greens and carrots when pizza and french fries will do? Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay on school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration's efforts to take unhealthy foods out of schools. The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts. The bill also would allow tomato...

Robert Haynes and his wife, Patricia, take care of their cerebral palsy-stricken son and daughter in their Macomb Township home. Taxpayers help out with monthly checks to the Haynes family. The checks, which are sent by the state, allow them to keep their son and daughter at home instead of having them institutionalized. But some of the taxpayer dollars that are supposed to go to the Haynes family are being siphoned off. The state takes a $30 monthly deduction from the checks and sends it to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This deduction is the result of the forced...

There are moral absolutes in life, and one of them is this: If a man comes across a child rape in process, he should do whatever he can to stop the rape and protect the child. There should be no reasonable debate about this, and the relevant question is not whether that standard is correct but whether we have the individual courage to meet that standard. Those two sentences should be among the least controversial ever written in the pages of NRO. Indeed, there should be no need to even write them, but in the aftermath of my Friday posting...

Police said seven children, most of whom are very young, could have died because their mothers left them home alone inside a freezing house. Court documents showed their mothers, 37-year-old Maria and 27-year-old Karina Media, were drunk at a party while their children were home trying to survive the night. Police said they found an 18-month-old baby sitting in a car seat. They said they also found children, some as young as 3 and 4 years old wrapped in blankets inside the mobile home with a broken heater.

Indiana University zoologist Alfred C. Kinsey shocked the nation in 1948 with the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male1, followed in 1953 by Sexual Behavior in the Human Female...2 Compiling thousands of interviews, Kinsey reported that American women were either sexually repressed (married) or highly promiscuous. Kinsey’s studies have had an enormous impact on...law and...culture, despite later evidence that the research was fatally flawed and even involved cover-ups of child rape. SNIP Sanitizing child sexual abuseKinsey also based his liberal view of child rape on research tabulated in Graph Tables 31-34 in the male volume, which chronicled systematic...

Since the Occupy protests began, reports of demonstrators placing themselves and even their small children in harm’s way have surfaced near-daily. This instance is no exception. MRCTV reporters happened to be at a D.C. Metro station and witnessed a group of Occupiers fight with convention center security guards while trying to block its entrance…with small children. Watch as protesters place the children right in the middle of the altercation while one Occupier says that since the children are hers, the action is justifiable. Meanwhile, other demonstrators seem to think that using children as human shields is permissible simply because they...

Almost half of Britons think children are violent and starting to behave like animals, a Barnardo's survey suggests. The children's charity says the research suggests society holds a negative view towards children despite the majority being well behaved. Of the more than 2,000 people questioned by ICM Research, 44% said young people were becoming feral. Barnado's chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said it was "depressing" so many were ready to give up on children. The survey revealed that: 49% agreed children are beginning to behave like animals Almost 47% thought youngsters were angry, violent and abusive One in four said...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama led toddlers at a New Orleans daycare center in calisthenics and read them a book about a mouse that eats green peas, bidding to get America's children eating better and exercising more. Obama stretched, jumped and marched in place before reading to the children who gathered in a classroom with their parents and teachers at the Royal Castle Child Development Center. The center focuses on preschoolers from families with moderate and low incomes.

WASHINGTON, OCT25 (UPI)-The Obama Administration is mulling whether an anthrax vaccine meant to protect against bioterrorism attack should be tested on U.S. children, officials say...

"...Washington, Oct.25 (UPI)- The Obama administration is mulling whether an anthrax vaccine meant to protect against bioterrorism attack should be tested on U.S. children, officials say..."

Last spring, I told you that Jenna Lyons, J. Crew’s president and creative director, wasn’t just having a little, harmless fun with her son Beckett when she published a photograph of herself painting his toenails hot pink in a J. Crew catalogue—a catalogue distributed to millions of people. The quote accompanying the image of Beckett read, “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.” I said Lyons was making a cultural statement about masculinity no longer being important to boys—that she was, essentially, uncomfortable with his...

A brave 7-pound pooch trying to protect three little kids in his family was heartlessly slapped out a third-story window by a cop on a failed drug raid, a lawsuit charges. Chuwie, a miniature Doberman-Pomeranian mix, miraculously survived, but his owner says the family pet hasn’t been the same since. “How could a police officer do that to a tiny dog?’’ said Iris Ramos, whose son-in-law, Ronald Estevez, 27, owns Chuwie. The dog never tried to attack a cop -- all he did was bark, according to the family’s Bronx Civil Court lawsuit against the city and NYPD for unspecified...

In a recent Times column entitled “Occupy the Classroom,” Nicholas Kristof went to bat for the idea of “early childhood education.” He quotes the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, as she forcefully states what we already know: there are significant performance gaps between rich and poor students; and those gaps widen in later years. Question is, what does our Education Establishment intend to do about these gaps? Nicholas Kristof is sure that we should do something. And that something, apparently, is to do more and more of what we are already doing but force it on younger and...

JERUSALEM, Israel, October 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Now that Hamas has freed Gilad Schalit, thousands of Israeli parents are asking the Ministry of Welfare to return their children being withheld from them by social workers. "The welfare system uses a 'divide-and-conquer' method to break up distressed families," says David Weisskopf, founder of the UnPromisedLand channel. (http://www.youtube.com/user/UnPromisedLand) The YouTube channel raises public awareness about ongoing corruption in the Israeli welfare system. One of the victims, a retired elite air force pilot, alleges that social workers kidnapped his infant son to put up for adoption. Such allegations are nothing new. The most...