Free Republic

Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying by Victoria JacksonI had a date with Judd Apatow. It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot. I needed a date to a premiere. I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them. It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality. 1) Go to the right places. I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I...

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- According to detectives, a 41-year-old man murdered his wife and two young children, before killing himself. "We have found a firearm, which is a clear indication of what we believe is a homicide-suicide," Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said. The father is identified as John Wood who officers say killed his wife Cindy, 40, and his two children, 12-year-old Aubrey and 10-year-old Dillon. The tragic incident happened inside a house in the exclusive, gated Heathrow community in Lake Mary. The Heathrow neighborhood is quiet and upscale, neighbors say and unaccustomed to violence. The entire Wood family...

Lawmakers have secretly approved awarding an illegal immigrant child molester more than $4 million because he was beaten by fellow inmates while in custody. Fernandez Ramirez, 24, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who molested a 6-year-old girl in a park. The back door settlement, paid with tax dollers, gives the illegal alien's family $3.75 million and $900,000 will go to medical liens rendered while in custody. Orange County (CA) Board of Supervisors refused to comment on the settlement even though constituents have the right to know since it's their money.

Lord Of The Flies Savages: Gang of Children Stripped, Beat And Tortured Boy, 15, Before Leaving Him For Dead In A Shallow Grave By CHRIS BROOKE 28th April 2009. Four children stripped and whipped a teenager before dumping him unconscious in a shallow grave in a scene reminiscent of the novel Lord of the Flies. The 15-year-old victim, who has a mental age of seven, was hit with planks and had lit cigarettes forced up his nose. He begged for mercy from his tormentors - a girl of 14, two boys aged 11 and another boy of 13. The girl...

The recent ruling in Iowa to permit homosexual marriage should scare all Americans. This change in thinking is indeed indicative of a country’s regression. Here in New Jersey, we sometimes forget that the country is not as diverse as we may like to believe; to consider our perspective analogous is obtuse. I agree, to us, the notion of homosexuality may not be foreign, yet that does not give us license to transcend the laws and consensus of the nation. We may harbor a more affable sentiment toward homosexuals, but that is in no way representative of the nation. The truth...

Teens charged in Mobile pizza slaying off DIP Sunday, March 29, 2009 By JEFF AMY Staff Reporter Mobile police arrested three teenage boys early Saturday, charging them in the robbery and fatal shooting of a Domino's Pizza delivery driver. Ngoc Dinh Nguyen was killed about 8:30 p.m. Friday in the 3000 block of Brill Circle, in the Gulfdale subdivision off Dauphin Island Parkway. Officer Jackie Bridgeforth, a Mobile police spokeswoman, said that when Nguyen arrived on the street, only blocks from the Domino's store at 2912 Dauphin Island Parkway, he was attacked and shot in the back by three teens....

A uniformed cop accused of raping an East Village woman in her apartment tried to hide from a surveillance camera while using a key to enter her building, sources said yesterday. But what he didn't appear to know was that there was a second camera catching his and his partner's every move before and after the alleged sexual assault, the sources said. The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating a claim that the patrolman raped an intoxicated business executive after the cop and his partner responded to a cabdriver's 911 plea for help with his drunken passenger, the sources said....

PARENTS should avoid trying to convince their teenage children of the difference between right and wrong when talking to them about sex, a new government leaflet is to advise. Instead, any discussion of values should be kept “light” to encourage teenagers to form their own views, according to the brochure, which one critic has called “amoral”. Talking to Your Teenager About Sex and Relationships will be distributed in pharmacies from next month as part of an initiative led by Beverley Hughes, the children’s minister. The leaflet comes in the wake of the case of Alfie Patten, the 13-year-old boy from...

A mother has pleaded guilty to murdering her only child after being told by her boyfriend: 'It's her or me'. Penny Boudreau strangled her 12-year-old daughter Karissa in a twisted bid to stop her boyfriend from ending their affair. The heartless mother ignored her terrified daughter's cries of 'Mummy, don't!' as she pinned her to the ground and wrapped a rope around her neck, prosecutor Paul Scovi told a Canadian court.

ALBERT LEA, Minn. (AP) - Two teenage girls who worked at a nursing home have been charged with abuse, accused of taunting, spitting on and groping residents who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. According to the criminal complaint, filed Monday, 19-year-old Brianna Broitzman and 18-year-old Ashton Larson laughed earlier this year as they spat in residents' mouths, poked and groped their breasts and genitals, and at times mocked them until they screamed.

LOS ANGELES -- Police are asking for the public's help to find the man who repeatedly punched a 16-year-old girl in the face at a McDonald's restaurant in South Los Angeles. (VIDEO AT LINK) The victim was attacked while in line at the McDonalds at 7123 Crenshaw Boulevard at about 10:15 a.m. on Sept. 14, 2008. Police say the suspect and the teen got into an argument about who was first in line, and he struck her repeatedly in the face. Anyone with information about the man's identity is urged to call detectives at the LAPD's 77th Street Division at...

Knife-wielding man beheads fellow passenger on bus (video)

PHILADELPHIA — Five teenagers fatally beat a man on a subway platform after a friend dared them to hit someone, saying "next person we see we're going to hit," one of the defendants allegedly told police. "We all didn't want to seem like no punk," Ameer Best, 17, told police in a written statement read at a preliminary hearing Wednesday for Best and four co-defendants. Best and the other teens, Kinta Stanton, Arthur Alston, Rasheem Bell and Nashir Fisher, all 16, will be tried as adults on charges of third-degree murder and conspiracy for the March 26 beating, Municipal Court...

MAY 21--Meet Alex Phillips. The Wisconsin teenager is facing felony child pornography charges for allegedly posting naked photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. When contacted by police about the two images, Phillips, 17, balked at removing the pictures of the girl. Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, "F#@! that, I am keeping them up," according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in Lacrosse County Circuit Court. Phillips, pictured in the below mug shot, told cops that he posted the photos last week "because he was venting." The...

A longtime preacher of a San Jose church was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 12-year-old churchgoer, San Jose police officer Enrique Garcia said Wednesday. Gustavo Antonio Lanzas, 64, of Sunnyvale was taken into custody Friday on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a minor under 14 years old. He has been the only pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Luz y Verdad for about 20 years, Garcia said. Police began investigating Lanzas after the boy alleged that he had been molested. It's unclear if the boy said that Lanzas molested him at the church or another location, but officers searched the...

The trouble began, Jolita Berry said, when she asked a girl in one of her art classes at Reginald F. Lewis High School to sit down. The student did not obey, coming closer to confront the teacher. "She said she's gonna bang me," Berry said. "I said, 'Back up, you're in my space. If you hit me, I'm gonna defend myself.'" But Berry, who is 30 and started her job teaching art at the Northeast Baltimore school in December, did not defend herself. The girl caught the teacher off guard as other students cheered her on and screamed, "Hit her!"...

WAYCROSS, Ga. - A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday. The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said. "We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been...

WAYCROSS, Ga. -- As many as nine third-grade students got together and plotted to harm their teacher, even going so far as to bring handcuffs and a knife to school, Waycross police said. School officials at Center Elementary School, which is located on Dorothy Street in Waycross, said they never imagined that some of the 8- and 9-year-olds boys and girls at the school would think of bringing physical harm to a teacher. "A plan had been developed amongst several of our third-grade students to allegedly do harm to their teacher," said Theresa Martin, of Ware County Schools. Martin said...

James Michael McHaney, a former aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor announced Thursday. McHaney faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 at sentencing. No sentencing date has been set as of yet. While employed as a scheduler in Cantwell’s office, McHaney was arrested in late 2007 for attempting to sexually exploit a teenage boy. He was fired within hours of his arrest. Law enforcement agents suspected McHaney might be sexually interested in male minors after a cooperating witness informed...

PONTIAC, Ill., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A man caught breaking into a Rent-A-Center store in Pontiac, Ill., to steal big screen TVs said he turned to crime to pay for his daughter's prom. Manual Gaines was spotted after police officers on patrol heard breaking glass outside the business, The Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph reported Friday. Officers chased a stolen van onto Interstate 55 and found more than $10,000 worth of plasma screen televisions inside the abandoned vehicle. Gaines, 36, was arrested in a field nearby where he was trying to hide.

Jamie Lynn Spears, 16, has confirmed to OK! Magazine that she is pregnant. Oh. My. God. A source tells us the interview, which hits stands tomorrow, is six pages and is on the record with Jamie Lynn and her mother. She tells the mag that the father is Casey Aldridge, who she has been dating for some time and first met at church. Brit's younger sister, star of Nick's "Zoey 101," says she's keeping the baby.

While playing in the street, two boys heard a noise coming from a dumpster. They pulled out a bag which had a newborn baby girl inside. The baby is in stable condition at a local hospital.

Matthew J. Schmitz December 15, 2007 Princeton, NJ After receiving multiple death threats, a Princeton student was beat unconscious last Friday in what appears to be a politically-motivated assault. The attack came after emails saying, "WE WILL KILL YOU," were sent to the officers of a student group that promotes traditional views of marriage and sexual ethics. Francisco Nava '09, suffered serious abrasions, bleeding, and a light concussion after being beat until he lost consciousness this Friday. The attack, which occured within blocks of Princeton's campus, appears to be connected to multiple death threats received by Nava and other officers...

If you think political correctness on our college campuses is a threat to free speech, I have a news flash for you. It's even worse than that. It's actually putting the lives of our young people at risk. Sound a bit over the top? Only if you haven't read a riveting account by a campus psychiatrist who knows the price our children are paying – mentally, emotionally and physically – for the attitudes that allow the "sexual revolution" to rage unchecked in the halls of "higher learning." That psychiatrist, Dr. Miriam Grossman, took a bold step last year when she...

WAUWATOSA, Wis. -- A melee at a Kmart store in Wauwatosa Saturday morning was started by a computer glitch. The store was running a promotion in which it would give away $10 to anyone applying for its credit card, but the computer glitch led to everyone's application being granted -- bestowing up to $4,000 in instant credit to anyone who applied even if they shouldn't have qualified. Once word started to spread about the so-called "free money" Saturday, witnesses said things got pretty nuts inside the Wauwatosa store. "They were having a big fight. Two ladies was jumping a lady...

A melee at a Kmart store in Wauwatosa Saturday morning was started by a computer glitch. The store was running a promotion in which it would give away $10 to anyone applying for its credit card, but the computer glitch led to everyone's application being granted -- bestowing up to $4,000 in instant credit to anyone who applied even if they shouldn't have qualified. Once word started to spread about the so-called "free money" Saturday, witnesses said things got pretty nuts inside the Wauwatosa store. "They were having a big fight. Two ladies was jumping a lady over credit cards,"...

MESA, Ariz., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The sight of an old man being hit by a truck in Arizona touched off a feeding frenzy among witnesses who allegedly stole the dying victim's groceries. Not only were the man's groceries taken, but the only person who tried to help him also had his own bags taken. Mesa police told KPHO-TV in nearby Phoenix that the scavengers could face theft charges if they are eventually tracked down. The elderly victim was waiting for a bus Tuesday night when a pickup truck swerved off the road and plowed into the stop. The man...

Amtrak police have arrested a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of assaulting a Capitol Corridor engineer who was dragged from his train and attacked with rocks and bottles. Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said the boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was caught shortly after the attack and arrested Tuesday. Another juvenile who was also held for questioning was released, she said. The engineer was attacked after a group of youths stood on the tracks and halted the train Monday around 10:15 p.m. The engineer opened a door when a conductor was threatened by the group, authorities...

<p>Five fifth-grade students face criminal charges after authorities said four of them had sex in front of other students in an unsupervised classroom and kept a classmate posted as a lookout for teachers.</p> <p>The students were arrested Tuesday at the Spearsville school in rural north Louisiana, authorities said.</p>

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- A 17-year-old girl who spent weeks looking for her missing dog unwrapped a box left on her doorstep and found the pet's severed head inside, authorities said. Homicide investigators were looking into the case because of the "implied" terroristic threat, St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray said. The Humane Society of the United States said Wednesday it was offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. "This was extraordinarily heinous," said Dale Bartlett, the Humane Society's deputy manager for animal cruelty issues. "I deal with hundreds and hundreds...

Ann Coulter fired back at critics who demanded the conservative columnist apologize for comments she made during a speech in which she referred to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards as a "faggot." "'Faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays," Coulter said on "Hannity and Colmes" Monday night. "It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss,' and unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person."

"WASHINGTON (AFP) - Inescapable media images of sexed-up girls and women posing as adolescents can cause psychological and even physical harm to adolescents and young women, a study in the US has warned. The pressure of what experts call "sexualization" can lead to depression, eating disorders, and poor academic performance, said the report, released Sunday by the American Psychological Association. "Sexualization of girls is a broad and increasing problem and is harmful to girls," it concluded. "Adult women dressed as school girls in music videos, bikini-clad dolls in hot tubs, and sexually-charged advertisements featuring teenagers were among the many examples...

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results. In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000. Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits. Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one...

The Sixties generation thought everything should be free. But only a few decades later the hippies were selling water at rock festivals for $5 a bottle. But for me the price of “free love” was even higher. I sacrificed what should have been the best years of my life for the black lie of free love. All the sex I ever had — and I had more than my fair share — far from bringing me the lasting relationship I sought, only made marriage a more distant prospect... And I am not alone. Count me among the dissatisfied daughters of...

MODESTO, Calif. Dec 29, 2006 (AP)— "Ghost riding the whip" a stunt in which a driver gets out of his car and dances around and on top of the slowly moving vehicle to a thumping hip-hop beat has gotten at least two people killed, led to numerous injuries and alarmed police on the West Coast and beyond. A fad among devotees of a West Coast strain of hip-hop music called "hyphy," the stunt has been celebrated in song and performed in numerous homemade videos posted on YouTube. "It did not take Einstein to look at this thing and say this...

"MADISON, Wis. -- An Illinois woman is suing her Wisconsin parents for maintaining an icy driveway that she blamed for a fall that broke her ankle two winters ago."

When all the fanatical Christians disappear, will traffic finally improve? Wait, did I miss it? Did it happen three days ago, on 6-6-06, a.k.a. Tea Time with the Beast, a.k.a. the Great Day of Reckoning, a.k.a. the National Day of Slayer, all the world crashing down in a heap of hissing steam and belching smoke and balmy gusty breezes sometime around noon just after lunch but not before rush hour and hitting right around siesta? I might have been napping. Did the Apocalypse finally hit? Did the deep wish of roughly a half-billion zealous believers come to pass and were...

During the lazy, long, hot days of summer, which activity would you rather see your son or daughter engaged in – playing a video game or reading a book? A silly question, right? After all, nearly every parent will say, "Reading a book." But whether that's truly the better activity depends on what book your child is reading. And as I've told readers of this column before, plenty of books designed for today's pre-teens and teenagers undermine the traditional moral values most parents struggle to teach their children. This time of year, kids of all ages come home with...

No wait, not six. To hell with that. Make it 10. Ten bucks a gallon, no matter what the going rate for a barrel of light sweet crude. That would so completely, violently, brilliantly do it. Revolutionize the country. Firebomb our pungent stasis. Change everything. Don't you agree? Here's what we could do: Give gas discounts to cab drivers (at least initially) and metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up '78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV...

Think sex and drugs destroy America? Try naive chastity. Oh, and "Purity Balls" There are these things. These unholy events called "Purity Balls" and you should probably fall to your knees right this minute and thank a merciful and lubricious and happily polyamorous God that you do not know what they are and that you have access right this minute to vast quantities of wine to deflect their nasty karmic arrows because, you know, oh my God. But hey, free country. Purity Balls. No, not some sort of newfangled spherical chastity device to be inserted using vacuum tubes and pulleys,...

It's a shockingly eco-friendly plan from the world's most toxic retailer. Did hell just freeze over? Sometimes you just have to let the possibility breathe. Sometimes you just have to allow that something grand and good and healthy might actually be born from the bowels of the dank and ravenous megacorporate world, like flowers from a dung heap, like vodka from old potatoes, even if it comes right alongside the nastiest, most abusive federal environmental policy you will see in your lifetime. Take Wal-Mart, the most famously offensive, town-destroying, junk-purveying, labor-abusing, sweatshop-supporting, American-job-killing, soul-numbing, seizure-inducing, hope-curdling retailer in the known...

SIDNEY, Neb. - A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years of probation instead. His crimes deserved a long sentence, District Judge Kristine Cecava said, but she worried that Richard W. Thompson, 50, would be especially imperiled by prison dangers. "You are a sex offender, and you did it to a child," she said. But, she said, "That doesn't make you a hunter. You do not fit in that category." Thompson will be electronically monitored the first four months of his probation, and he...

Adult females sexually exploiting adolescent boys are malefactors -- not benefactors. "There is an alarmingly high rate of sexual abuse by females in the backgrounds of rapists, sex offenders, and sexually aggressive men," writes Frederick Mathews, Ph.D., in "The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens." Yet the public's perception of adult females who manipulate minor boys into sexual relationships continues to be skewed by late-night comedians and news coverage that treats it as a boy's harmless rite of passage rather than a serious crime. It's most disturbing when a judge doesn't get it. On May 22,...

The solemnity of hymns played on an organ was replaced by thumping speakers that amplified a thick bass line. Instead of a more traditional, staid sermon, listeners heard a hip-hop homily. Mixing the motifs of hip-hop music and culture with Christian doctrine is all part of the HipHopEMass service. The Rev. Timothy Holder, an Episcopal minister from New York City, created the HipHopEMass concept. He and his posse of musicians and religious rappers brought their in-your-face ministry to Richmond last night, holding a service at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 1719 N. 22nd St.

A 13-year-old girl who told Zion police she was raped by seven boys in an apartment complex laundry room last month has recanted her original statement that she was forced to engage in the sexual activity. Authorities are only pursuing charges against the eldest boy involved, who at 17 can be prosecuted as an adult for having sexual contact with a minor, Zion Police Chief Doug Malcolm said in a statement. No other charges will be filed. The youngest boy linked to the April 19 incident in the 2600 block of Gabriel Avenue is 12. The boys were interviewed separately...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A high school student caught having sex with his girlfriend at her house has sued the Wake County Board of Education, saying that the school system has no authority over students' off-campus behavior and should not have suspended him. Ryan Biggar, 16, was suspended for 10 days from Middle Creek High School in Apex after he and his 17-year-old girlfriend were caught having sex at her house during school hours on April 19. Biggar and his mother Patricia Biggar filed suit last week in Wake Superior Court.

It's 10 a.m. on a Saturday, and I am at the front of a room at the Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center, explaining oral sex to a woman pretending to be my son. I stammer and pause, go back over my words and Hate This, while the woman smiles. Your turn next, sister. Talking to our kids about sex is something we over-prepared parents just aren't prepared for. I changed the diapers, packed Gatorade and soothed all sorts of hurts, emotional and physical. But preparing my 13-year-old son to be a sexual being? Explaining when and why, how and where? Sure,...

Episcopal Churches Turn to U2 to Pack Pews By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 14, 9:14 AM ET PROVIDENCE, R.I. - As the electric guitar in the U2 anthem "Pride (In the Name of Love)" faded from four speakers, the Rev. Robert Brooks welcomed worshippers to Grace Episcopal Church with an unusual suggestion: He warned them to protect their hearing. "If the sound's an issue, we do have earplugs available," he said. Ushers handed out earplugs and fluorescent glow sticks for the "U2 Eucharist," a communion service punctuated by the Irish rock band's music. Episcopal parishes from California...

SACRAMENTO—Three people have been found guilty of beating a pregnant woman in an effort to kill the fetus her boyfriend did not want her to carry to term.

Tattoos and piercings are ways for an individual to express their personality, but most employers are looking for presentable employees. "I think that appearance is very important, [because] it lets the employer know that you know how to take care of yourself," said Eric Constantine, the manager of Athlete's House in Nashville. It can be a very difficult choice whether or not to have your ears pierced or to get a tattoo, as Lisa Stevens, a freshman, found out. "I really wanted the lifeguard job at the local pool back home," she said. "The only thing was that I also...