Free Republic

Most Births Among Those Under 30 Are To Unwed Moms It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: More than half of births to U.S. women younger than 30 occur outside marriage. Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the past two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends,...

"It's the economy, stupid" was the slogan Bill Clinton used to bash George Bush in 1992. The GOP, which had planned to hammer the Democrats this year over the economy, may now switch to quite a different rallying cry: "It's the culture, stupid." Recent economic good news hurts Mitt Romney's case that he is the right man to take on President Obama. Meanwhile, Obama's decision to ignite a culture war by making it illegal for Catholics to obey their own teachings on contraception could persuade Republican voters that Rick Santorum might me the best man to battle the president in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — All of a sudden, abortion, contraception and gay marriage are at the center of American political discourse, with the struggling — though improving — economy pushed to the background. Social issues don't typically dominate the discussion in shaky economies. But they do raise emotions important to factors like voter turnout. And they can be key tools for political candidates clamoring for attention, campaign cash or just a change of subject in an election year. "The public is reacting to what it's hearing about," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. In a political season, he...

Last summer, when a School Board member shared concerns about teen boys wearing long wigs, dresses and makeup to class, the principals of the three city high schools insisted they hadn't seen it. Superintendent Deran Whitney said he had heard no complaints and had observed only one boy - in jeans and a shirt - dressed in "what is traditionally viewed as female clothing." Now, Whitney has proposed modifications to the student dress code that include a change that addresses cross-gender clothing. The regulations, to be considered by the board tonight, ban clothing "that is not in keeping with a...

You can’t argue with the research… Researchers have long known that people who have frequent sex are generally healthier Most health benefits seem to be linked to penile-vaginal intercourse Frequent sex may also bring longer life, fewer coronary events, lower blood pressure Researchers have long known that not only is sex fun (when done with the right person, of course), but that people who have frequent sex tend to live longer and have healthier hearts and lower rates of certain cancers. These studies also show that men with an active sex life have healthier sperm, and sexually active women have...

LETTERKENNY, Ireland – Arguing that the Catholic Church in Ireland is under attack from “aggressive secularism” constitutes a “hate crime,” according to a formal complaint made to Irish police. John Colgan, called a “leading humanist” by the Irish Independent, told police this week that Bishop Philip Boyce of the Raphoe diocese in northwestern Ireland was guilty of “incitement to hatred” against secularists when the latter said in a sermon last August that the Church was being “attacked from the outside by the arrows of a secular and godless culture.”

New Playgrounds Are Safe—and That's Why Nobody Uses Them The problem with safety guidelines is that they make most playgrounds so uninteresting as to contribute to reduced physical activity. Playgrounds don't look like they used to. Steep metal slides and wooden towers have given way to slow, plastic slides and carefully penned-in climbing contraptions. And forget about seesaws -- they're a thing of the past. When kids are bored by unimaginative (read: safe) playground equipment, they're less active as a result, and with childhood obesity at epidemic proportions, that's a danger, too. An interesting new investigation looks into this phenomenon....

When Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist who has studied and advised most of the leaders in the former Soviet Union, visited Kiev in late 2004, at the height of the Orange Revolution, he returned to his office in Washington, D.C., with a surprising observation. Most reports depicted the Orange Revolutionaries, with their determined, subzero encampment of the capital city's central square, either as western Ukrainians rebelling against the government's pro-Russian stance, or as idealistic students who were unwilling to stomach political repression. Both characterizations were true, but Aslund saw a third dynamic at play. The Orange Revolution, he told me,...

I haven’t had many lectures where terms like necrophilia or bestiality came up. That’s why, among all the classes I’ve taken over the past four years, the sociology course I’m taking this semester, Sexuality and the Law, stand outs. It wasn’t until the second class that the professor really delved into the ‘makes you feel uncomfortable and avoid eye contact with the other students’ material. Penis rings, polygamy, chastity belts, the Kama Sutra, and the lack of a female counterpart to Viagra were all discussed, in no particular order of uncomfortableness. Next, the professor gave a brief overview of popular...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An anti-profanity crusader on Tuesday asked ABC to pull this week's "Modern Family" episode in which a toddler appears to use a bleeped curse word. "Our main goal is to stop this from happening," said McKay Hatch, an 18-year-old college student who founded the No Cussing Club in 2007. "If we don't, at least ABC knows that people all over the world don't want to have a 2-year-old saying the 'F-bomb' on TV."

~~snip~~ The Girl Scouts have a cross-dresser in the front office. Ten years ago, Girl Scouts media relations officer Joshua Ackley was frontman for the “homopunk” band the Dead Betties. In publicity shots, he’s dressed in women’s clothing, and in music videos, he appears to be naked and feigning masturbation. The video for “Hellevator” portrays a woman being strangled in an elevator shaft while Mr. Ackley flashes a menacing grin. Today he issues press releases, posts news and views on the Girl Scouts’ blog, and tries to mollify moms who are concerned about Girl Scout ties with Planned Parenthood. In...

Liberal Web Site Lies: Claims Santorum's Wife Had Abortion The liberal, pro-abortion web site Jezebel, which recently named as its woman of the year an abortion practitioner who injured a woman in a botched abortion, is now making false claims that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's wife had an abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/01/06/liberal-web-site-lies-claims-santorums-wife-had-abortion/

This wonderful Christmas perennial is very unusual for films in that Hays Code Era, a villain gets away with the crime. Does that affect your feelings about this movie? For me, when I saw this movie in my youth, it did catch my thought and I remember asking my parents why. Now as a seasoned adult, I think that I appreciate a movie that does not wrap up all of the threads into a neat package.

Brethren, Peace and Good to all of you. As many of you already know, the Archbishop of San Francisco, George Niederauer, "disinvited" openly homosexual Protestant clergy from Advent vespers in a local parish. The "LGBT Community" is thoroughly offended and is attempting to make this a wedge issue. As part of that effort, an unknown writer - the piece has no byline, although the writer's identity is probably known by the regulars - of the San Francisco Guardian Online wrote a piece titled Catholic Church rejects LGBT ministers in which he vents his anger. I left a comment in their...

The taxpayers are being beaten to death by liberalism. Meanwhile academic liberals are complaining that they are taking a beating with recent budget cuts, which they claim are unjust. For the first time in a long time, I agree with the liberals. The budget cuts are unjust. In my view, they aren’t deep enough. If you disagree, consider this: One public university in North Carolina has just found money to start (in the midst of a budget crisis) a new scholarship to reward feminists for engaging in feminist political activism on the job. Here in the Tar Heel state, this...

Some are calling a greeting card offensive, but others say the mass-produced card available at Target is just a joke. On the outside, it reads “Heard you’re pregnant”. On the inside, there is just one word … let’s just say it starts with a “w” and rhymes with “bore”.

(NewsCore) - A Rhode Island lawmaker is calling Gov. Lincoln Chafee "Governor Grinch" for defying politicians and deciding that the state would have a "holiday tree" instead of a "Christmas tree." The governor defended his decision by arguing that it is in keeping with the state's founding in 1636 by religious dissident Roger Williams as a haven for tolerance -- where government and religion were kept separate. Chafee, an independent, said in a statement issued Tuesday that his stand was a continuation of past practice, "and does not represent a change of course on my part." But Rep. Doreen Costa,...

The Pew Research Center has provided some timely food for thought as we enter our traditional holiday season. According to a new report comparing attitudes in Europe and America, only 49 percent of Americans now feel that American culture is superior to others. This is down from 60 percent in 2002. For those that may find this troubling, there is more reason for concern in that only 37 percent of young Americans, ages 18- 29, say American culture is superior. What the study does not examine is what we mean by culture. I happened to hear a discussion on one...

For more than 10 years, Brendan Smith has been telling the story of the Bible in a very unusual way: with Legos. Through his hit Web site and three popular books, Smith has spread the gospel of “The Brick Testament.” But now, because of what it says are concerns about “mature content,” Sam’s Club, one of the nation’s largest retailers, has banned in-store sales of the fourth book in the series, “The Brick Bible.” On his Web site, Smith’s Brick Testament contains a series of interpretations of sexually suggestive passages of the Bible, but in the latest book version, those...

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...

New York City 11-year-olds will soon be learning sex education from workbooks that include instruction on “mutual masturbation, French kissing, oral and anal sex, and “intercourse using a condom and an oil-based lubricant.” The shocking revelations were uncovered in “recommended” workbooks reviewed by The New York Post. Sex education will become mandatory in New York City middle and high schools next year. Students will be required to take one semester of sex education in sixth or seventh grades and one in ninth or tenth grades.

Details about the new sex education curriculum in New York City public schools are out -- and some are concerned the lessons are too racy. The New York Post obtained workbooks that will be used for the new recommended curriculum, which begins in middle schools and high schools around the city next spring. Parents, they say, may be shocked by details of the work. Middle school students will be assigned "risk cards" that rate the safety of different activities, the paper says, from French kissing to oral sex. The workbooks for older students direct them to a website run by...

Internet pornography is creating a generation of young men who are hopeless in the bedroom, according to research. Exposure to lurid images and films in the new media is de-sensitising so many young people that they are increasingly unable to become excited by ordinary sexual encounters, a report said. -snip- The report, called 'Porn-Induced Sexual Dysfunction is a Growing Problem', explains that the loss of libido 30 years early is caused by continuous over-stimulation of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that activates the body's reaction to sexual pleasure, by repeatedly viewing pornography on the internet. A 'paradoxical effect' is created whereby with...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The family from cable television's polygamous "Sister Wives" reality show has told a federal judge in Utah how much they've been hurt by the threat of prosecution under the state's bigamy law. Kody Brown and his wives wrote in new court papers that they've lost jobs, were forced to move to Nevada and suffered harm to their reputations after police launched an investigation last year after the fall 2010 launch of their TLC show. In July, Brown and wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robin, filed a lawsuit challenging Utah's bigamy law in Salt Lake City's...

California Schools Scrambling To Add Lessons On LGBT Americans Many are flummoxed about how to carry out a new law requiring California public schools to teach all students, from kindergartners to 12th-graders, about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. David Columbus, a senior and president of Downtown Magnets High School's Gay-Straight Alliance club, said he was pushed around and called names since he was 3 because he liked Barbie dolls. But, he said, he has thrived in the school's supportive environment. Teresa Watanabe October 16, 2011 At Wonderland Avenue Elementary School in Laurel Canyon, there are lesson plans on diverse...

WASHINGTON – Almost 20 years after a Democratic strategist made “it’s the economy, stupid” popular, Louisiana’s Republican Governor gave the phrase a new spin at this year’s Values Voter Summit – telling attendees, “It’s the culture stupid.” (See LSN video of excerpts from his talk) “I’m going to make the case that even issues such as unemployment, insane levels of debt, irrational government, runaway deficits, absurd bailout programs, all important issues, all of them are details and byproducts of a much larger cultural concern,” Governor Bobby Jindal told social conservatives Friday in his speech. “As the American culture goes, so...

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- A back-to-school campaign is drawing criticism for encouraging graffiti among school-aged children. The campaign, dubbed by the art-retailer Aaron Brothers as "Artrageous," is hosting free events and giving out free "graffiti starter kits" to participants. But city council members are calling the move outrageous by promoting an act of vandalism as art. Councilman Dennis Zine introduced a resolution this week trying to stop the company from hosting the event, claiming kids may be tempted use the tools for illegal reasons. Zine is seeking a seek and desist order to legally prevent the store from holding the...

Trace Cyrus, the rocker older brother of Miley Cyrus, is expecting a child with Disney actress Brenda Song, MTV News reported Wednesday. It will be the first child for both Cyrus, 22, and Song, 23, who began dating in May 2010. Before the pair hooked up, they had been linked to fellow members of the Disney dynasty. Cyrus dated former "Sonny with a Chance" star Demi Lovato in 2009 and Song had been romanced by singer Joe Jonas in 2008.

Just when you thought the campaigns coming out of George Soros’ Open Society Institute couldn’t push the envelope any further, the Soros backed institute topped itself. OSI reportedly just released a new comic book titled Methadone Man and Buprenorphine Babe — which encourages drug addicts to use Methadone and Buprenorphine to combat heroin and other opioid drug withdrawals and even to fight HIV.

Four years ago, the BBC decided to capitalize on the immense popularity of the long-running Doctor Who series by creating a spin-off called Torchwood. Whereas Doctor Who is, apart from the intensity of its stories, safe for the whole family, producers said that Torchwood would be “dark, clever, wild, [and] sexy.” "Doctor Who for adults” is what they called it. As a colleague wrote at the time, a better word to describe the show is “nihilistic” - it’s a judgment that’s reinforced by the show’s newest character. While Torchwood is certainly dark, it’s rarely, if ever, been all that “clever,”...

I am sure this will be happening in Madrid as it did in London. Richard Dawkins brought at least one laspsed Catholic back to the Church during the Papal visit to the UK. She saw the the anti-Pope snarling mob led by Dawkins and Tatchel, with their plastic devil horns and inflated condoms, sex "toys" and angry faces and she saw the sheer joy of those cheering the Pope and the banners carried by the enthusiastic youth. She said it wasn't about arguments, it was about faces. Dawkins & co. glaring and hopeless, those who were there cheering the Pope...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Will the Children’s Television Workshop give way to same-sex puppet love? An online campaign is calling for the producers of TV’s “Sesame Street” to allow characters Bert and Ernie to get married in an attempt to “put an end to the bullying and suicides of LGBT youth”, according to the group’s Facebook page. The petition letter adds that “[w]e are not asking that Sesame Street do anything crude or disrespectful by allowing Bert & Ernie to marry”, suggesting that the show “even add a transgender character to the show…in a tasteful way”.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to certify that gays can serve openly in the armed services

The stumble came in the word zulo, which means "hideout" in English, for San Antonio's sole contestant in the first-ever National Spanish Spelling Bee. Linda Duann Rodriguez, about to start her freshman year at East Central High School, confused the letter "z" with the letter "s" in the competition at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Saturday morning. After the judges told her "incorrecto," she exited the stage as the third student disqualified and watched as the finalists continued competing. ...After two hours, Evelyn Juárez, a seventh-grader from Carlos F. Vigil Middle School of Santa Cruz, N.M., emerged victorious after...

NEW YORK, July 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - American Christians may one day find themselves facing legal penalties simply for believing marriage can only exist between a man and a woman, a fate already suffered by believers in other countries, said the leader of America’s most influential Catholic pulpit this week. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York reflected on his blog Thursday on the recent legalization of gay “marriage” in New York, and what repercussions true marriage supporters can expect in the future. He called it “haunting� that the marriage bill became law on the day Catholics celebrate the feast of...

...In those early music classes you learned songs that became part of your American songbook, songs as familiar as your grandmother's hands or the stretch of street where you grew up... Today's kids still learn traditional American folk tunes, but educators are casting a wider net. "There is certainly a world music trend now," says Brian Shepard, of the Music Teachers National Association, based in Ohio. "Schools are teaching folk tunes from other cultures." At Hicks Elementary... students learned Nigerian boat song Eh Soom Boo Kawaya, Canadian folk song J'entends le Moulin and Norwegian emigrant song Oleanna, and other far-flung...

(CBS) - Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project is, in my opinion, an inspiring and important endeavor with so many gay youths dealing with depression, bullying and suicide. Which is why I think this beautiful video recently released by Google Chrome for the project is one that you should definitely be sure to check out. Per Google Chrome's write-up about the commercial: Beginning with one inspiring video, Dan Savage used the web to create the It Gets Better project--a movement that has generated thousands of uplifting videos that give hope to teens. I couldn't agree more and applaud Google Chrome...

Six days before a college football player was arrested at San Francisco International Airport in a dispute that began when a US Airways employee asked him to pull up his sagging pants, a man who was wearing little but women's undergarments was allowed to fly the airline, a US Airways spokeswoman conceded Tuesday. A photo of the scantily clad man was provided to The Chronicle by Jill Tarlow, a passenger on the June 9 flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Phoenix. Tarlow said other passengers had complained to airline workers before the plane boarded, but that employees had ignored those...

A blog purportedly written by a gay woman in Syria, which described life in Damascas amid the current political unrest, has been revealed to be a hoax. A Girl Gay in Damascus gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news organisations. But the true author has now come forward - Tom MacMaster, an American man studying in Scotland. Many Syrian activists have reacted angrily, accusing him of trivialising or even harming their cause. "One day if I'm kidnapped by my government, many readers won't care because I could turn out to be another Amina," wrote one Lebanese blogger....

...“Paula Brooks,” editor of Lez Get Real since its founding in 2008, is actually Bill Graber, 58, who said he is a retired Ohio military man and construction worker that had adopted his wife’s identity online... Brooks’s identity came under suspicion after news broke that a woman called Amina Arraf on the blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus” might not really be a Syrian lesbian. Over the weekend, as journalists, bloggers and fans of Amina hunted for clues to the identity behind the blog, Brooks came under review as a possible suspect. Liz Henry, a Web producer at BlogHer.com, questioned...

The highest ranking Democrat in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, refused to give any support for scandalous Rep. Anthony Weiner. The New York Democrat confessed on Monday to lying about sending a photo of his bulging underpants to a college student. Mr. Weiner also admitted to sexting and sending other obscene photos to as six other women. At a press conference in the Capitol on Tuesday, I asked Mr. Reid whether he thought the Mr. Weiner should resign. “I’m not here to defend Weiner,” responded the Nevada Democrat. “But what do you think he should do?” I asked. “That's...

“Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left” – Herbert Marcuse, Father of the New Left President Barack Obama’s recent suggestion that returning to 1967 boundaries is the starting point for negotiations between Israel and Palestinians raises questions. While a strong case can be made for minding our business internationally, betraying allies and naively appeasing enemies appear curious as strategic ploys. His foreign policy revolves around coddling Third World dictators, snubbing traditional friends and overall subservience to the U.N. Obama seems more about reversing his predecessor than charting any coherent...

What the hell is going on over Memorial Day weekend among America's youts, specifically, "Eric Holder's People"?!IM SICK OF IT! Here in Little Rock, (which was just named No. 7 most dangerous city), I was talking to my friend yesterday, who is an LRPD officer. He asked if my wife and I were going to Riverfest that evening. I told him my son, age 9 mos. was sick, and we weren't planning to. He told me, "Good. There is a Rap artist playing at 9PM and there are not enough cops on duty so be very careful, and carry your...

A female Florida sheriff's deputy handcuffed naked girls to a desk, spanked them with a leather paddle and sent the seamy homemade videos to a boyfriend she met on a fetish web site, authorities said. Robin Leigh Pagoria, 45, subjected her two victims - described as girls between the ages of 10 and 18 - to multiple torture sessions, authorities said. "There aren't words to describe my anger with her," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told the Orlando Sentinel, adding that the arrest "came out of nowhere." Pagoria, a divorced Marine veteran, shackled the girls' wrists and ankles to a...

A recent Gallup poll has confirmed that the majority of Americans now support gay marriage. Opponents of gay marriage will attack the messenger, but the poll is consistent with recent polls by CNN/Opinion Research and the Washington Post stating the same thing, and represents a natural progression of a decade long trend that can be seen on the graph above. Even Focus on the Family’s President Jim Daly has admitted to World Magazine that “We’re losing on that one, especially among the 20- and 30-somethings: 65 to 70 percent of them favor same-sex marriage. I don’t know if that’s going...

Washington D.C., May 12, 2011 / 12:39 am (CNA).- The Presbyterian Church USA has voted to remove clergy requirements of marital fidelity or single chastity, thus allowing the ordination of ministers and lay leaders who are openly homosexual or living in unmarried relationships.“This is a lonely day for Presbyterians who believe what the Bible and the Church have consistently taught: that God’s will is that we be faithful in marriage or chaste in singleness. Now we belong to a denomination that is no longer sure it believes that teaching,” said Allan Wisdom, a director of Presbyterian Action at the...

WASHINGTON (AP/THE BLAZE) — President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, will celebrate American poetry and prose with a gathering of poets, musicians and artists at the White House next Wednesday night. Professionals Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Kenneth Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, Aimee Mann and Jill Scott will read, sing and highlight poetry’s influence on American culture. And there is another poet whose works will be honored: as NH Journal points out, “One of the poets who will attend is Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. who goes by the name ‘Common.’” “Tell the law my Uzi weighs a ton …...

A prominent Florida atheist activist has been charged with verbally simulating sex in the presence of a 10-year-old neighbor. Ellen Beth Wachs, 48, was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior. Wachs has been prominent in her opposition to prayer at public meetings and challenged the constitutionality of the sheriff donating jail basketball hoops to Polk County churches. An arrest affidavit said she was arrested following a Saturday morning dispute with a neighbor. According to the affidavit, the 10-year-old boy was playing basketball when Wachs yelled through her open bedroom window for him to stop. The boy was joined outside by...

CHICAGO, May 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The University of Chicago (UC) last month footed the bill for an exhibit of hundreds of extremely explicit sadomasochistic pornographic images and books to be displayed on campus grounds. The Chicago Sun-Times last Wednesday reported that an officially recognized student sadomasochist group received $3,200 from the University to host a three-day display of the “Carter-Johnson Leather Library,� making UC the first campus to welcome the lewd display. A member of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) attended the exhibit and reported on the extreme pornographic material on display, including a lesbian porn book describing...

The report in the New York Times that atheists are looking for official recognition as chaplains in the American military in order to cater to the needs of non-believing servicemen is interesting. On the one hand, it’s kind of absurd. Atheist chaplains? It’s a contradiction in terms. What are they going to teach? Non-belief? What services will they offer? Non-prayers and sermons on evolution? And what comfort will they offer dying soldiers, G-d forbid (oops! Even that doesn’t work). Will they say, “Game over. You’re going to a place of complete oblivion. Thank you for your service.”? On the other...